Sketching the Very Wealthy. Men and Women of Property (1861–1900)

The chapter provides an overview of the very rich in 19th-century Milan, Lombardy’s financial and trading “heart” and its administrative centre. Since the wealth hierarchy mirrors a country’s stage of development, it is possible to assess both the rate of upward social mobility and the relevance of the industrial sector at the time from the extent to which manufacturers, industrialists, and other “new” entrepreneurs entered the regional elite. The very wealthy have been identified as those individuals who left their heirs an estate valued at 1 million lire or more, according to the probate records registered in the town between 1862 and 1900. Aristocrats accounted for nearly 40% of these, but their position was worsening over time, whereas bankers, merchants, and industrialists succeeded in climbing the wealth pyramid. As in other European regions during the 19th century, Milan’s industrialisation process offered good opportunities for enrichment: a number of men took advantage of this, and a few women also found themselves in charge of large fortunes through inheritance, thus acquiring economic citizenship.