1st Edition
An Economic History of Italy From the Fall of the Empire to the Beginning of the 16th Century
I. THE LAST TWO CENTURIES OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE page 1
1. Structural changes in the Empire during its first 20 years and their economic effects 1
2. Competition from the provinces 3
3. Depopulation and disaffection 5
4. Military and monetary anarchy 6
5. The reorganisation of the Empire by Diocletian and Constantine. Oriental despotism 9
6. The Germanic invasions and the fall of the western Empire 11
II. FROM THE FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE TO THE PARTITION OF ITALY BETWEEN GREEKS AND LOMBARDS 14
1. Italy under the Ostrogoths 14
2. The Italian economy during the Gothic Wars and the first years of Byzantine rule 16
3. The Lombard invasion 17
4. The partition of Italy between Greeks and Lombards 19
5. The status of the vanquished Romans. The property of the Church 20
III. FROM THE PARTITION OF ITALY TO THE CAROLINGIAN CONQUEST (SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES) 23
1. Lombard society in Rothari’s Edict 23
2. Signs of revival under the last Lombard kings. Towns and trade in the eighth century 26
3. Elements of a money economy: trade and trades in Lombard Italy 28
4. Byzantine Italy in the seventh and eighth centuries. The origins of Venice 31
IV. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN CAROLINGIAN AND FEUDAL ITALY 36
1. Lombard Italy under the Carolingians 36
2. New threats of invasion: Arabs, Hungarians, Slays, and Normans 38
3. The feudal system 40
4. The economic nature of feudalism 42
V BEGINNINGS OF REVIVAL IN THE TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES 47
1. The cities of Byzantine Italy: Ravenna, Rome, Ban, Amalfi 47
2. The rise of Venetian seapower between the ninth and eleventh centuries 51
3. Pisa and Genoa in the tenth and eleventh centuries 53
4. The revival of the inland towns 55
5. The beginnings of change in the countryside 61
VI. ITALY IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH CENTURIES 66
1. Social changes after the tenth century and the rise of the urban communes 66
2. The First Crusade and the maritime towns of Italy 71
3. The Italian colonies in the Levant 73
4. The western offensive in the Byzantine East 76
5. Economic progress in the great inland communes and the development of the bourgeoisie 79
6. Origin, character, and purpose of the craft and merchant guilds 82
VII. THE URBAN ECONOMY IN ITS PRIME. THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 86
1. The expansion of the greater maritime cities after the Fourth Crusade 86
2. Economic conditions in the greater communes of inland Italy during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries 91
3. Agriculture, industry, and trade in the age of the communes 98
4. Finance, money, and credit in the age of the communes 121
VIII. THE WANING OF THE MIDDLE AGES
1. The changing place of Italy in Europe after 1350 137
2. The great sea powers: Genoa and Venice 146
3. Town and country in Lombardy and Tuscany 155
4. The predominantly agricultural areas of Italy 161
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 168
INDEX 175
Biography
Luzzatto, Gino
