Papers by monika poettinger
Contributions to economics, Dec 31, 2022
Austrian History Yearbook, Mar 30, 2023
P.I.E. P. Lang eBooks, 2014
ABSTRACT As of a consequence of the ongoing economic crisis, in 2010 there was a marked deteriora... more ABSTRACT As of a consequence of the ongoing economic crisis, in 2010 there was a marked deterioration in cross-border relations between Italy and Germany. In both countries the press published articles openly blaming economic hardship on the squandering attitude of southerners or the egoistic and mercantilist policies of northerners. The reigning confusion among economists, split between pro-and anti-Euro positions in both countries, could do nothing to counter this growing wave of populist nationalism. Out of this situation grew the idea of a organizing a conference to discuss the theoretical issues implied by recent economic policy debates, purging them of ideological and nationalistic overtones. This volume publishes the proceedings of the resulting international colloquium, «Economic crisis and new nationalisms: German economic policy as perceived by European partners», which was organized by the Foundation Cesifin Alberto Predieri and held in Florence in November 2012
Rivista di storia economica, 2007
Routledge eBooks, Feb 7, 2023
This study analyses the history of the Ginori porcelain manufactory, from its foundation owing to... more This study analyses the history of the Ginori porcelain manufactory, from its foundation owing to the entrepreneurial effort of the marquis Carlo Ginori in the 1730s to the merger with the 'Società Ceramica Richard' in 1896. The aristocratic entrepreneurship marked the manufactory with some atypical traits in accountancy, administration, succession, and strategic decisions that persisted for all the century and a half during which it remained in the hands of the Ginori family. The history of the Ginori manufactory so highlights a kind of entrepreneurship neglected by historiography. The foundation of the Ginori manufactory At the origin of the Ginori manufactory was the entrepreneurial idea developed by the scion of one of the leading aristocratic families of Tuscany: Carlo Ginori (1702-1757). Educated by Jesuits to become one of the advisors of the Medici family in the government of Tuscany, Carlo was also valued and respected by Francesco Lorena, who took over the Grand Duchy in 1737. Immediately appointed in the Consiglio di Reggenza, Carlo Ginori was responsible for the finances of the state and as such the most powerful Tuscan representative in the local government. To limit his growing influence, feared by Austrian envoys and officials, in 1746 Carlo was finally sent as governor to the port city of Leghorn, where he died in 1757. The education received by Carlo also included an enlightened pursuit of scientific interests, and chemistry became a veritable passion for the marquis. In his Florentine palace he set up a laboratory comparable to the ones of the most skilful alchemists of the time. Hence the interest in porcelain, whose manufacturing secret, sought after by Jesuits in China for a long time, was considered one of the most precious formulae of alchemy. The kick-off of the manufacturing activity can be dated to 1737, when Carlo Ginori relocated the experiments on porcelain to Doccia, the villa of the family estate situated in Sesto Fiorentino, a few miles away from Florence. At that time, he had finalised his own recipe for porcelain and thanks to a journey to Vienna he had also been able to acquire the services of skilled personnel from the local porcelain manufactory (
Routledge eBooks, Sep 20, 2021
Rivista di storia economica, 2014
The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germanyirreversibly altered Europe&... more The outcome of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germanyirreversibly altered Europe's political equilibrium and with it theideological predominance of French culture on the Continent. This wasparticularly true for the young economic science. The predominance ofAnglo-French economic liberalism had had its culmination in 1860 withthe Cobden Chevalier Treaty, sanctioning not only the commitment ofGreat Britain and France to free trade but also the proximity of their traditions in economic thought. The emergence, though, in the subsequent decade of new national bodies in Italy and Germany brought to the forefrontthe necessity to justify institutional changes and profound reforms inlaw and polities, a feat done summoning the historical evolution of societies more than endorsing individual freedom. Eisenach was the German answer, Milan the Italian one. Both congresses, held in 1872 and 1875 respectively, harshly condemned the inhuman working conditions, for women and children, entailed in the industrialization process and consequently invoked the intervention of the State in the name of moral principles. Contingency was so the excuse of pervading policies that could be adapted to different situations in space and time. Liberalists could not accept such turn in economic science. Across borders, alarmed reviews of the two Congresses were printed, translated and commented, journals were even founded with the intent to refute or diffuse the new theories. The ensuing "Methodenstreit" became a powerful means to diffuse economic thinking in the whole of Europe, stimulating international reviewing of economic books and articles and the translation of economic texts.
Rivista di storia economica, 2011
The paper is based on extensive research done in Milan's Chamber of Commerce. The resulting d... more The paper is based on extensive research done in Milan's Chamber of Commerce. The resulting database of 176 founding acts of businesses registered in the 1850s allows an unique insight in the functioning mechanisms of Lombardy's economy: how liquidity was collected and distributed, how partnerships were formed, inside which social circles were partners found, how much kinship ties determined business decisions, what criteria proved relevant in the investment decision making processes, how were innovation and entrepreneurship rewarded. Based on the richness of the data collected several conclusions were drawn on business forms, partners characteristics and innovation. The picture emerging from the sample vindicates the capacity of Milan's merchant elite to foster innovation through the efficient allocation of capital and the creation of entrepreneurial capital, averting at the same time disastrous financial crises: the solid base of the successive development of the region.
Studi sulla Formazione/Open Journal of Education, 2018
This essay analyses several writings of Carlo Lorenzini, published on journals, newspapers and co... more This essay analyses several writings of Carlo Lorenzini, published on journals, newspapers and collections, reconstructing the enlightened pedagogical principles applied in composing his masterpiece, The Adventures of Pinocchio, and also his assumptions in regard the path of history and the role of education in the bettering of society. The process of humanization of Pinocchio will also be represented as the experience of all children, aged eight to twelve, on the verge of adulthood in the land of freedom of choice and morality building. Lastly, the work of Lorenzini will be contextualised in the history of Tuscany in the decades of Italy's unification, showing the disappointment of Lorenzini with the results of the institutionalisation process of the new state, harming the freedom of its citizen, not least by imposing bourgeois values through compulsory education.
Historical Review, Dec 13, 2013
During the nineteenth century in Continental Europe, merchant networks founded enterprises wherev... more During the nineteenth century in Continental Europe, merchant networks founded enterprises wherever comparative or absolute advantages related to natural resources or workers' capabilities, but also changing economic policies, made it profitable. Incessantly comparing the cost-effectiveness of investments, merchant networks enhanced the efficiency of the entire economic system, but also favoured innovation, introducing technological advancements when feasible and potentially remunerative. At the same time, though, economic crises, more and more dependent on manufacturing and less on agricultural cycles, became manifest and an object of theoretical debate. The paper analyzes how merchant networks envisioned economic crises, if at all, and how the economic decision processes of such organizational structures responded to them. It will be ascertained that, more than sectorial imbalances and insufficient demand, the crisis that merchants really feared was the end of credibility and thus of access to credit. Personal failure could dramatically reduce the level of trust, depriving the merchant system of its functioning principle. The chosen framework of analysis describes the actual economic decision process, on which the distribution of production depended, and its relation to economic cycles. These in England, and these only, are called merchants, by way of honourable distinction."
The American Historical Review, Dec 1, 2020
ABSTRACT The 1980s witnessed a renewed interest in the Wiener Kreis and logical empiricism . New ... more ABSTRACT The 1980s witnessed a renewed interest in the Wiener Kreis and logical empiricism . New historiographical accounts were dedicated to its principal components and their works have been widely republished. Among them also one of the most controversial adherents to the first Vienna circle: Otto Neurath (1882-1945) . Once stigmatized as a volcanic revolutionary, poor in theory as rich in reforming enthusiasm, Neurath has been rediscovered as an astonishingly modern theorist of the philosophy of science, capable of anticipating the much later positions of Kuhn and Feyerabend. Neurath’s role as an economist, though, has been much more neglected, even if recently his economic writings have been republished and partially translated in English . A quite astonishing occurrence, given that Neurath begun his scientific and academic career as an economist with an outstanding curriculum and participated in all debates of his time, discussing in depth central themes from the theory of value, to the method of social sciences, from the normative content of economics to the possibility of socialist calculation, to quote just the most renown. Due to the vehemence of these debates, contemporaries judged Neurath’s accomplishments rather with contempt than appreciation. Nonetheless the silence of historiography for most of the remaining twentieth century is not easily understandable, particularly in the field of economic thought. The main difficulty in evaluating Neurath’s economic theory lies in his radical redefinition of the economic science as such, based on his empiricist, or better even ‘physicalist’, approach. The first section of this paper will so be dedicated to briefly introduce Neurath’s idea of science and of the role scientists should have in society. How his epistemology resulted from of his experience in reforming economic science in the first decades of the twentieth century will also be briefly illustrated. The second section of the paper will then relate how Neurath, in the course of the years comprised between the publication of his doctoral dissertation in 1906 and his essay on Das Begriffsgebäude der Wirtschaftslehre und seine Grundlagen in 1917, completely revolutionized the idea of economics, refuting both the approach of the historical school represented by Gustav Schmoller, one of his supervisors in Berlin, and the sistematic of the school of Vienna he already attacked participating to the seminar held by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk in 1906. Neurath so redefined economics in an holistic effort to reduce to unity all the opposing positions inflaming the economic debates of those troubled years, giving life to a science that could equally make space for abstracting models and empirical verification; a science that applied the same methodology to the study of a market economy and of socialization processes; a science that could comprise List’s cosmopolitan economy as a contemporary war economy. Although being quite revolutionary in its outcome, Neurath’s definition of economics rested heavily on the past of the discipline. In his view, no science could and should be rebuild completely, starting with a tabula rasa. From Aristotle to Smith, from Quesnay to Sismondi, all economists had still something useful to contribute to the advancement of science. What once had been cast away could find new validity in some novel form or in a restricted field. History was so an indispensable part of the economist’s toolkit. As described in the paper, many features of Neurath’s economics reveal today a striking modernity, justifying the necessity of a new and more complete evaluation of his role in the history of economic thought.
Economic Thought and History, 2016
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Papers by monika poettinger
"This book provides a comprehensive history of Florence between 1865 and 1871. An encompassing introduction by one of the editors and 15 contributions show the profound and long-lasting changes resulting from the establishment of Florence as temporary capital of Italy. Readers will learn a lot from this illuminating text and its rich illustrations." Alain Alcouffe, Emeritus Professor, University of Toulouse, France Available to pre-order now! 35% off with this flyer! Hardback | 376 pp | December 2017 | 9781350013988 | £90.00 £58.50 This edited collection provides the first comprehensive history of Florence as the mid-19th century capital of the fledgling Italian nation. Covering various aspects of politics, economics, culture and society, this book examines the impact that the short-lived experience of becoming the political and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Italy had on the Tuscan city, both immediately and in the years that followed. It reflects upon the urbanising changes that affected the appearance of the city and the introduction of various economic and cultural innovations. The volume also analyses the crisis caused by the eventual relocation of the capital to Rome and the subsequent bankruptcy of the communality which hampered Florence on the long road to modernity. Florence: Capital of the Kingdom of Italy, 1865-71 is a fascinating study for all students and scholars of modern Italian history.
to understand how different national, political and cultural traditions influenced the complex interaction of economic cycles and economic theorizing. This is alongside a comprehensive outlook on the most relevant advances of economic theory in France, Germany and Italy, as well as coverage of non-European countries, such as the United
States.
conclusions will be drawn on the possibility to construe in kind indexes of wealth, allowing fruitful comparisons of different institutional settings.
The peculiarity of the aristocratic entrepreneurship embodied by Carlo Ginori marked the manufactory with some atypical traits that persisted for all the century and a half in which it remained in the hands of the heirs of the Ginori family (Paragraph 2). Accountancy, administration, succession and strategic decisions were heavily influenced by the aristocratic management of the firm. The early centralization of production in the premises located in villa Buondelmonti in Doccia, near Sesto Fiorentino, was just the most visible of these long-term characteristics.
Seen in this light, the history of Carlo Ginori and of his porcelain manufactory provides some precious understanding of the peculiar form and management of enterprises born out of nobility, highlighting a kind of entrepreneurship usually neglected by historiography.
The paper will analyse the representations of differing economic systems made by Ciocca on the base of his travels and the influence they had on the general opinion through the diffusion of his writings and the debates they sparked on newspapers and journals. Further attention will be dedicated to the documents, related to his voyages, preserved in personal archive of Gaetano Ciocca at the MART in Rovereto.
The paper will analyze this response of Italian economists and intellectuals to England’s crises in the most diffused journals of the first half of the nineteenth century, from Il Conciliatore to the Antologia, from the Annali to the Biblioteca Italiana. A brief review of popular and illustrated magazines will underline how this stance would persist as an ideological prejudice on the inequality of the English society long into the second half of the nineteenth century.