Preliminary Programme

The aim of this paper is to investigate both consumption choices and logics of pricing of luxury goods in the Visconti and Sforza court in Milan. Using a large variety of inventories belonging to several male and female members of the court (Gian Galeazzo and Valentina Visconti, Anastasia, Drusiana, Ippolita, Bona, Galeazzo Maria, Bianca Maria and Ludovico Sforza), the analysis will focus especially on priceless and inestimable things as they are considered by these sources. By antithesis, those invaluable items will give us a precious access to the understanding of the social and cultural meaning of conspicuous consumption in the Milanese court, as well as its impact on the construction of the two separated, but complementary circuits of alienable and inalienable luxury goods. (Show less)

How was it possible to create a market for new commodities without controlling the import of goods? How was the State able to create, manipulate and monitor the spread of new consumption patterns, avoiding a loss of power on commercial flows and – mainly – the fall of national revenues?
This paper focuses on the evolution of consumption of colonial goods and the role played by the Venetian State in the creation of new markets in the early modern period, linking political and economic spheres. Since the end of the sixteenth, and mainly since the middle of the seventeenth Century, European consumption patterns were affected by the emergence of several new colonial goods, such as sugar, coffee, tobacco, cocoa and Indian clothes, coming both from America and Eastern Asia. The impact of these commodities affected the Venetian markets in various ways. Although initially those products were considered mainly as luxury goods, with their circulation they conquered also low and middle sort of people, thanks to quality diversification. The consumption of those goods also stimulated local productions (as in the case of tobacco or pottery) and finally it affected the re-organization of domestic manufacturing (for new items in ceramics, textiles, glasses and chalk-pipes). While these market transactions were in place, the Venetian State started to adapt its traditional protectionist policy to the new demand of both consumers and traders. This situation required an adaptation of its rules and aims.
Using a large varieties of sources I will start with an evaluation of the diffusion of global commodities (mainly colonial goods as coffee, cocoa, tea, and tobacco) in the Venetian markets, both in rural and urban areas. The use of book accounts, probate inventories and commercial statistics will allow a better understanding on these patterns. On the other hand I will analyze the influence of these goods on the mercantilist economic policy of the State. In particular, I will focus on grants and exemptions accorded to entrepreneurs for the import and export of those goods. (Show less)