The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan, 1886–1922
The Political Economy of Shopkeeping in Milan, 1886–1922
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From the mid–1880s a shopkeeper movement developed in Milan, centred around a shopkeeper newspaper, a federation of shopkeeper trade associations, and a shopkeeper bank. In 1904 shopkeeper representatives initiated a sequence of events that led to the fall of the first radical-socialist administration within the city. The author explains these events with reference to the business of shopkeeping itself. He analyses the trades, techniques, tax structure and topography of the Milanese retail sector, and traces the history of the contest between shops and cooperatives and the shopkeeper's changing relationship with his employees and with his clientele. The final chapter confronts the crucial question of why the Milanese shopkeepers were to be found on the political right in the years leading up to the Fascist takeover. This is the first book to deal with any aspect of the Italian petite bourgeoisie.
- This is the first serious book to appear on any aspect of the Italian petite bourgeoisie
- The book answers the question why the shopkeepers moved to the political right in the years before 1922 and the Fascist takeover
- The history of the bourgeoisie in 19th/20th-century Europe is of increasing interest
Reviews & endorsements
'… provides a wealth of information not just on shopkeeping , but on local government, socialism and the Italian cooperative movement. Morris's book - exhaustively researched and excellently produced - shows us for the first time, the difficult, tortured and contradictory road towards some sort of shopkeeper unity and self-identity.' John Foot, Association for the Study of Modern Italy
Product details
March 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511877568
0 pages
0kg
44 b/w illus. 21 tables
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: Shopkeeping as a historical problem
- 1. The business of shopkeeping in Milan 1859–1915
- 2. The context of shopkeeping: trades and techniques
- 3. The economic geography of shopkeeping: the role of the dazio consumo
- 4. The esercenti enter the political arena
- 5. Constructing the esercenti movement 1886–1890
- 6. The esercenti and the Depression 1890–1897
- 7. Shopkeepers, cooperatives and the politics of privilege
- 8. Milan and the national small business movement 1886–1898
- 9. The allargamento debate 1895–1897
- 10. The end of century crisis and the enlargement of the dazio belt
- 11. Shopkeeping in the new century
- 12. Labour relations and class politics
- 13. The esercenti and the centre-left administration 1900–1905
- 14. Shopkeepers and socialists
- Conclusion: Identity and autonomy.
