Books by Giulio Ongaro
Maize to the people, 2020
Here you can find the contributions of the volume edited by me and Aleksander Panjek regarding ma... more Here you can find the contributions of the volume edited by me and Aleksander Panjek regarding maize diffusion in the north-eastern Mediterranean
Work in Early Modern Italy, 1500–1800, 2019
Recent decades have seen many economic history books and articles published about working men and... more Recent decades have seen many economic history books and articles published about working men and women, small and big entrepreneurs, guilds and state manufactures, farmers and journeymen, and children and citizens. Studies have been conducted both at a macro and a micro level, at a global and at a local scale and with regional and national approaches aimed at analysing cultural, social and economic phenomena associated with the world of work. Yet, there is still new ground to be covered. This book aims to fill a gap in early modern history by presenting new insights in the study of global labour history. It considers the whole Italian peninsula as one geographical unit of analysis, encompassing all of the features that characterize labour cultures during the early modern period. It details the evolution of forms of labour in both agriculture and manufacture and the role of labour as an economic, social and cultural factor in the evolution of the Italian area.
La regolazione istituzionale dei mercati granari, nata per garantire localmente la certezza degli... more La regolazione istituzionale dei mercati granari, nata per garantire localmente la certezza degli approvvigionamenti in congiunture di scarsità, costituisce uno degli aspetti più comuni delle economie di Antico Regime. Pilastro di quel sistema ordinato al bonum commune che i philosophes dipinsero come ostacolo al libero commercio e alla 'pubblica felicità, essa costituisce un terreno imprescindibile di riflessione sul complesso rapporto tra bene pubblico e logiche dello scambio, tra razionalità di governo e razionalità economiche. Il volume esplora, attraverso casi di studio relativi agli stati italiani preunitari tra Sei e Settecento, le configurazioni concrete di questo rapporto, la dialettica di interessi e poteri intorno alla regolazione dei mercati cerealicoli, l'evoluzione dei saperi e delle tecnologie di governo.
Società italiana di storia del lavoro La Società Italiana di Storia del Lavoro (SISLav) nasce nel... more Società italiana di storia del lavoro La Società Italiana di Storia del Lavoro (SISLav) nasce nel 2012 per istituire più strette relazioni fra studiosi di diversa formazione, fra approcci, sensibilità e metodi, fra generazioni di ricercatori, fra le istituzioni ancora interessate a promuovere la conoscenza e la storia del lavoro. Per assolvere a tali scopi la Società si è data un sito internet (http://www.storialavoro.it), ha organizzato seminari, convegni e dibattiti, si è connessa a reti internazionali di studiosi, ha sostenuto la nascita di gruppi di lavoro: ora si dota anche di una propria linea editoriale. La collana Lavori in corso. Studi e ricerche di storia del lavoro intende dare conto della fitta attività della Società e dei gruppi di lavoro che ad essa fanno capo (Quaderni), promuovere e sostenere la pubblicazione di monografie di ricerca (Saggi), favorire la circolazione di testi divulgativi e di discussione (Argomenti).
Peasants and Soldiers The Management of the Venetian Military Structure in the Mainland Dominion Between the 16th and 17th Centuries, 2017
Pubblicazioni del Servizio Archivistico Comprensoriale di Valle Camonica, Mar 10, 2016
In November-December 1624, the Republic of Venice sent to Valtellina a gun battery, in order to ... more In November-December 1624, the Republic of Venice sent to Valtellina a gun battery, in order to join the French army led by the marquis of Coeuvres. The guns moved from Brescia, where the arsenal of the western Venetian mainland was kept, northward through Iseo lake and Valcamonica. Here the Commune of Edolo hosted the Venetian coordinator of the manoeuvre, Marc’Antonio Canal.
This book documents that event: a series of three essays investigates the making of the expedition, the social and economic involvement of the local communities, and the rhetorical reworking of the facts by Venetian authorities; furthermore, an edition of some significant documents is provided.
Articles and Essays by Giulio Ongaro
Free Trade and Free Ports in the Mediterranean, 2024
The chapter analyses the role played by the free ports of Ancona, Genoa, Livorno, and Trieste in ... more The chapter analyses the role played by the free ports of Ancona, Genoa, Livorno, and Trieste in the early-modern grain trade. Trade in grain was strictly controlled by the public authorities in the pre-unitary Italian states, to guarantee the provisioning of the citizenry and the earnings of landowners. However, this apparently ‘closed’ system could survive only thanks to the presence of ‘exceptional’ areas that were instruments for regulating the in- and outflow of essential goods. In times of food scarcity, it was imperative that the urban Annone be supplied through the free ports, whose privileges enabled them to attract huge amounts of grain. These dynamics between free ports and public subsistence provision inspired further debate on free grain trade in which supporters of ‘deregulation’ claimed that favourable excise policies and a degree of commercial freedom could guarantee continuous food provisioning from areas with surplus production, and at the same time preserve the earnings of merchants and landowners.
Mezzi di scambio non monetari. Merci e servizi come monete alternative nelle economie dei secoli XIII-XVIII / Alternative currencies. Commodities and services as exchange currencies in the monetarized economies of the 13th to 18th centuries, 2024
The paper aims at clarifying the characterisation and the role played by in-kind
payments in wage... more The paper aims at clarifying the characterisation and the role played by in-kind
payments in wages’ composition both in the cities and in the countryside in
eighteenth century Northern Italy.
Rural History, 2023
The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of wheat quality in the formation of wheat prices in... more The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of wheat quality in the formation of wheat prices in the early modern period, adopting eighteenth-century northern Italy as a case study. Wheat prices have been widely used by economic historians to calculate living standards, determine the degree of market integration, and date famines. Rarely, however, have economic historians focused on how wheat prices were determined. By looking at the wheat supply chain, we will try to make more visible the extent to which wheat quality was crucial in determining the value of wheat and, as a consequence, the final price of grain.
This chapter concentrates on two urban case studies (Bologna and Milan), with some final remarks ... more This chapter concentrates on two urban case studies (Bologna and Milan), with some final remarks on a rural context, i.e., the Lombard Valleys in the province of Brescia. It describes the type of energy sources (signally faggots, wood and charcoal) employed for different aims in houses and in the manufacturing structures in the case studies selected. The authors decided to use the temperature averages because they certainly represent the main cause of wood consumption in urban homes. The main sources for reconstructing wood consumption and prices in eighteenth-century Bologna are represented by the account books of seven charitable institutions which annually recorded the amounts of various types of woods stored in their warehouses as well as their prices and their use. Even if there were some differences in the aims of these institutions and their social and economic relevance, the data recorded in their account books allow us to reconstruct the trend in wood consumption and prices.
This study estimates the cost of living in three cities-Florence, Bologna and Milanin eighteenth-... more This study estimates the cost of living in three cities-Florence, Bologna and Milanin eighteenth-century northern Italy. Although they do not allow an understanding of the differences between social groups or seasonal consumption patterns, the calculation of living costs and the implied modelling have a twofold aim. First, they allow the calculation of real wages, which are obtained by dividing nominal wages by the cost of a consumption basket; therefore, broadly, they allow the Italian case to be put into great debates of economic history, such as the one on the Little Divergence between northern and southern Europe at the end of the early modern period. In this regard, we will show that the existing calculations used for this purpose have many criticalities, and we will solve them. Second, determining the cost of consumption baskets allows us to observe the role played by urban public institutions in mediating between the market and consumers, with relevant effects on price trends and, therefore, on the purchasing power of the urban population.
Lo scopo del presente contributo è di approfondire il ruolo che le aree di confine della Repubbli... more Lo scopo del presente contributo è di approfondire il ruolo che le aree di confine della Repubblica di Venezia, e in particolare le province di Brescia e Bergamo, svolsero in ambito militare nel corso dell'età moderna.
Business History, 2023
This paper introduces the Special Issue ‘Minorities and Grain Trade in
Early Modern Europe’. Whil... more This paper introduces the Special Issue ‘Minorities and Grain Trade in
Early Modern Europe’. While an area’s traditional supply circuits benefitted
from satisfactory harvests and a stable food demand, minorities’
contribution became crucial during crisis. Due to their commercial networks, facilities, and capital, minorities and their agents were able to
cope with market disruption, especially when inflation and the reconfiguration of supply areas rendered ‘traditional’ grain merchants unable to face the emergency. The papers included in the Special Issue focus on the geographical and financial scope of legal grain-trading minorities’ businesses and their degree of specialisation and analyse how political authorities’ reliance on minorities to face food scarcity not only represented an economic opportunity for minorities but also contributed to shaping their relationship with public authorities.
Business History, 2023
This article innovatively analyses the economic structure of sixteenth
century Venetian rural are... more This article innovatively analyses the economic structure of sixteenth
century Venetian rural areas, specifically the countryside of the province
of Vicenza. Many studies have proposed general reconstructions of the
manufacturing and agricultural characterisation of the Venetian rural
areas in the Early Modern period, but little is known about the behaviour
of the rural merchants, organisation of rural enterprises, scope of their
businesses, and their relationship with urban entrepreneurs. Apart from
shedding new light on these topics, this article will also permit a comparison
of the characteristics of Vicentine rural merchants with those
of rural entrepreneurs operating in other European regions, based on
information gathered from accounting books and trials. Consequently,
this article will contribute to the discussion of Mendel’s proto-industrialization
theory and, more generally, it will offer new insights into the
‘ruralization’ of the Italian economy during the sixteenth century.
Agricultural History Review, 2022
This article explores the reasons why seasonal patterns in historical grain prices series often d... more This article explores the reasons why seasonal patterns in historical grain prices series often deviated from the expected pattern of low prices post
harvest and gradually rising prices until the next harvest. We analyse eighteenth-century Flemish and northern Italian grain prices to focus on the role of storage technologies, alternative seasonal patterns in supply and demand, and particularly quality variation. We argue that quality was not consistent throughout the harvest year because (1) grain quality improved in store and (2) grain producers selected different qualities for sale at different times of the year. Consequently, seasonal patterns in grain prices were affected by (1) the quality of stored grain gradually improving, (2) the balance of old and new grain available for sale and (3) the dumping in the market of poor-quality old grain, not ordinarily sold, when a new, successful harvest was in sight. These factors mattered, in addition to supply-and-demand effects that varied between cereals and regions, depending on storage technologies and buyers’ preferences.
Mediterranea - ricerche storiche, 2022
L’articolo analizza il ruolo dei mercanti ebrei nel commercio del grano nello spazio
mediterraneo... more L’articolo analizza il ruolo dei mercanti ebrei nel commercio del grano nello spazio
mediterraneo del XVIII secolo, con un approfondimento sul caso dello Stato della Chiesa e del
medio Adriatico. L’interrogativo di partenza è il seguente: è possibile individuare (se vi siano)
degli elementi peculiari, connessi alle caratteristiche di una minoranza discriminata, che mettano
in collegamento la rete mercantile ebraica e il commercio dei cereali e dei prodotti alimentari
in generale? La capacità di far circolare informazioni e merci costituisce un fattore determinante,
non solo per i mercanti ebrei; altrettanto centrale appare la capacità di intessere rapporti con le
autorità locali, indispensabili per poter ottenere licenze, concessioni, commesse. Specifico del
mondo ebraico, invece, è il contesto di limitazioni e di discriminazione politica e religiosa esercitata
dalle autorità dei rispettivi territori. Appare piuttosto l’arrivo di condizioni di emergenza,
dettate da carestie o eventi bellici, come passaggi di truppe, a costituire un terreno in cui alcuni
tra i principali mercanti ebrei dello Stato riuscivano ad attivare le risorse relazionali ed economiche
necessarie per rifornire le città dei cereali necessari alla sopravvivenza delle popolazioni.
Special Issue of the review «Proposte e Ricerche», n. 87
LA CITTÀ E LA CURA Spazi, istituzioni, strategie, memoria THE CITY AND HEALTHCARE Spaces, Institutions, Strategies, Memory, 2021
Come è stato fatto ad esempio recentemente per Toledo [Gonzàlez Agudo 2019]. Per quanto riguarda ... more Come è stato fatto ad esempio recentemente per Toledo [Gonzàlez Agudo 2019]. Per quanto riguarda invece i consumi alimentari a Bologna in età moderna si dispone già degli esaurienti contributi di Alberto Guenzi, che consentono interessanti comparazioni tra le diete negli istituti assistenziali e quelle degli abitanti della città petroniana [
Prezzi, salari e condizioni di vita nel Veneto rinascimentale (1550-1616 ca.), in G. Beltramini, D. Gasparotto, M. Vinco (eds.), La Fabbrica del Rinascimento. Processi creativi, mercato e produzione a Vicenza. Venice: Marsilio, pp. 273-288, 2021
Managing Abundance: Victualling Offices and Cereals Merchants in Eighteenth-Century Ferrara, in L. Clerici (ed.), Italian Victualling Systems in the Early Modern Age, 16th to 18th Century (Palgrave Macmillan), 2021
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Books by Giulio Ongaro
This book documents that event: a series of three essays investigates the making of the expedition, the social and economic involvement of the local communities, and the rhetorical reworking of the facts by Venetian authorities; furthermore, an edition of some significant documents is provided.
Articles and Essays by Giulio Ongaro
payments in wages’ composition both in the cities and in the countryside in
eighteenth century Northern Italy.
Early Modern Europe’. While an area’s traditional supply circuits benefitted
from satisfactory harvests and a stable food demand, minorities’
contribution became crucial during crisis. Due to their commercial networks, facilities, and capital, minorities and their agents were able to
cope with market disruption, especially when inflation and the reconfiguration of supply areas rendered ‘traditional’ grain merchants unable to face the emergency. The papers included in the Special Issue focus on the geographical and financial scope of legal grain-trading minorities’ businesses and their degree of specialisation and analyse how political authorities’ reliance on minorities to face food scarcity not only represented an economic opportunity for minorities but also contributed to shaping their relationship with public authorities.
century Venetian rural areas, specifically the countryside of the province
of Vicenza. Many studies have proposed general reconstructions of the
manufacturing and agricultural characterisation of the Venetian rural
areas in the Early Modern period, but little is known about the behaviour
of the rural merchants, organisation of rural enterprises, scope of their
businesses, and their relationship with urban entrepreneurs. Apart from
shedding new light on these topics, this article will also permit a comparison
of the characteristics of Vicentine rural merchants with those
of rural entrepreneurs operating in other European regions, based on
information gathered from accounting books and trials. Consequently,
this article will contribute to the discussion of Mendel’s proto-industrialization
theory and, more generally, it will offer new insights into the
‘ruralization’ of the Italian economy during the sixteenth century.
harvest and gradually rising prices until the next harvest. We analyse eighteenth-century Flemish and northern Italian grain prices to focus on the role of storage technologies, alternative seasonal patterns in supply and demand, and particularly quality variation. We argue that quality was not consistent throughout the harvest year because (1) grain quality improved in store and (2) grain producers selected different qualities for sale at different times of the year. Consequently, seasonal patterns in grain prices were affected by (1) the quality of stored grain gradually improving, (2) the balance of old and new grain available for sale and (3) the dumping in the market of poor-quality old grain, not ordinarily sold, when a new, successful harvest was in sight. These factors mattered, in addition to supply-and-demand effects that varied between cereals and regions, depending on storage technologies and buyers’ preferences.
mediterraneo del XVIII secolo, con un approfondimento sul caso dello Stato della Chiesa e del
medio Adriatico. L’interrogativo di partenza è il seguente: è possibile individuare (se vi siano)
degli elementi peculiari, connessi alle caratteristiche di una minoranza discriminata, che mettano
in collegamento la rete mercantile ebraica e il commercio dei cereali e dei prodotti alimentari
in generale? La capacità di far circolare informazioni e merci costituisce un fattore determinante,
non solo per i mercanti ebrei; altrettanto centrale appare la capacità di intessere rapporti con le
autorità locali, indispensabili per poter ottenere licenze, concessioni, commesse. Specifico del
mondo ebraico, invece, è il contesto di limitazioni e di discriminazione politica e religiosa esercitata
dalle autorità dei rispettivi territori. Appare piuttosto l’arrivo di condizioni di emergenza,
dettate da carestie o eventi bellici, come passaggi di truppe, a costituire un terreno in cui alcuni
tra i principali mercanti ebrei dello Stato riuscivano ad attivare le risorse relazionali ed economiche
necessarie per rifornire le città dei cereali necessari alla sopravvivenza delle popolazioni.
This book documents that event: a series of three essays investigates the making of the expedition, the social and economic involvement of the local communities, and the rhetorical reworking of the facts by Venetian authorities; furthermore, an edition of some significant documents is provided.
payments in wages’ composition both in the cities and in the countryside in
eighteenth century Northern Italy.
Early Modern Europe’. While an area’s traditional supply circuits benefitted
from satisfactory harvests and a stable food demand, minorities’
contribution became crucial during crisis. Due to their commercial networks, facilities, and capital, minorities and their agents were able to
cope with market disruption, especially when inflation and the reconfiguration of supply areas rendered ‘traditional’ grain merchants unable to face the emergency. The papers included in the Special Issue focus on the geographical and financial scope of legal grain-trading minorities’ businesses and their degree of specialisation and analyse how political authorities’ reliance on minorities to face food scarcity not only represented an economic opportunity for minorities but also contributed to shaping their relationship with public authorities.
century Venetian rural areas, specifically the countryside of the province
of Vicenza. Many studies have proposed general reconstructions of the
manufacturing and agricultural characterisation of the Venetian rural
areas in the Early Modern period, but little is known about the behaviour
of the rural merchants, organisation of rural enterprises, scope of their
businesses, and their relationship with urban entrepreneurs. Apart from
shedding new light on these topics, this article will also permit a comparison
of the characteristics of Vicentine rural merchants with those
of rural entrepreneurs operating in other European regions, based on
information gathered from accounting books and trials. Consequently,
this article will contribute to the discussion of Mendel’s proto-industrialization
theory and, more generally, it will offer new insights into the
‘ruralization’ of the Italian economy during the sixteenth century.
harvest and gradually rising prices until the next harvest. We analyse eighteenth-century Flemish and northern Italian grain prices to focus on the role of storage technologies, alternative seasonal patterns in supply and demand, and particularly quality variation. We argue that quality was not consistent throughout the harvest year because (1) grain quality improved in store and (2) grain producers selected different qualities for sale at different times of the year. Consequently, seasonal patterns in grain prices were affected by (1) the quality of stored grain gradually improving, (2) the balance of old and new grain available for sale and (3) the dumping in the market of poor-quality old grain, not ordinarily sold, when a new, successful harvest was in sight. These factors mattered, in addition to supply-and-demand effects that varied between cereals and regions, depending on storage technologies and buyers’ preferences.
mediterraneo del XVIII secolo, con un approfondimento sul caso dello Stato della Chiesa e del
medio Adriatico. L’interrogativo di partenza è il seguente: è possibile individuare (se vi siano)
degli elementi peculiari, connessi alle caratteristiche di una minoranza discriminata, che mettano
in collegamento la rete mercantile ebraica e il commercio dei cereali e dei prodotti alimentari
in generale? La capacità di far circolare informazioni e merci costituisce un fattore determinante,
non solo per i mercanti ebrei; altrettanto centrale appare la capacità di intessere rapporti con le
autorità locali, indispensabili per poter ottenere licenze, concessioni, commesse. Specifico del
mondo ebraico, invece, è il contesto di limitazioni e di discriminazione politica e religiosa esercitata
dalle autorità dei rispettivi territori. Appare piuttosto l’arrivo di condizioni di emergenza,
dettate da carestie o eventi bellici, come passaggi di truppe, a costituire un terreno in cui alcuni
tra i principali mercanti ebrei dello Stato riuscivano ad attivare le risorse relazionali ed economiche
necessarie per rifornire le città dei cereali necessari alla sopravvivenza delle popolazioni.
The Conference will take place in Milan on Thursday 28th and Friday 29th September 2017; the University “Bicocca” of Milan, partner in the organization of the Conference, will host the event.
It is an occasion of great scientific and cultural relevance, directed not only to scholars, but also to cultural operators, teachers and, broadly, to everyone who could be interested in these topics.
The Conference will host 8 sessions, 31 papers with scholars coming from European and extra-European countries
Conference languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French
Location: Milan, University of Milan "Bicocca", U6 Building, Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1
Info:
http://www.storialavoro.it/convegno20160/
storialavoro@gmail.com
14 Novembre 2017 dalle 17.00 alle 19.00 | Giulio Ongaro (Università di Milano Bicocca): “Economia e società“
Conference: The Firm and the Sea: Chains, Flows and Connections