Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

German Entrepreneurs and the Industrialization of Milan
Table 9.4 Annual quantity of raw silk produced in Europe or
imported from other regions in the year 1834
Country
Quantity a
Italy 12,853,333
France 2,362,500
Spain 3,500,000
Imported from Greece, the
Greek islands, and Turkey
787,500
Imported from Bengal 2,137,500
Imported from China 900,000
Imported from Persia, comprising
Russian provinces
1,687,500
Imported from Asia Minor 787,500
Total 25,015,833
a Quantity is expressed in libbre milanesi piccole (100lb of Milan=32.68 kg).
Source: These statistics are reported in Eugenio Balbi and Adriano Balbi,
Miscellanea Italiana: Ragionalamenti di geografia e statistica patria (Milan, 1845),
251. The statistics themselves were collected by the economist and liberal
Giacomo Giovanetti, Della libera estrazione della seta greggia dal Piemonte
(Vigevano, 1834). On Giovanetti and his economic stance see Franco Della
Peruta, Uomini e idee dell’Ottocento italiano (Milan, 2002), 63–4.
more mixed. Its economic regulations profoundly changed the comparative
advantages of European cities and regions. The subsequent
distortions caused huge costs for many manufacturers and labourers
and wiped out entire production sectors in developed or developing
regions. But they also diffused innovations to new productive locations.
To survive in such an economic setting, manufacturers had to
adapt, resorting to delocalization of production or entrepreneurial
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