Tentative Approaches: Studies and Sources on the Economy in the Early Period of the “Archivio Storico Lombardo” (1874–1944)

Abstract

This essay examines the presence of economic and social themes in the “Archivio Storico Lombardo” from its founding to the fall of fascism, within the broader con­text of historical studies in Italy. The Milanese journal long focused on the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, prioritized a legal-institutional approach and the pub­lication of documentary sources, and relegated the analysis of economic history to occasional contributions. In the light of all this, the article explores the emergence of topics related to trade, taxation, guilds, and manufacturing, despite the absence of a coherent methodological framework and against the backdrop of a general cultural context in Italy marked by Idealism and by the late academic recognition of Econom­ic History as a discipline. The most significant openings in this direction came from some Piedmentese “historical economists” influenced by Luigi Einaudi, as well as from the initial establishment of chairs in Economic History at Milanese universities. The period considered thus appears as an extended preparatory phase, in which the “Archivio Storico Lombardo” and related initiatives contributed primarily through the valorization of new sources to the development of economic-historical studies on Lombardy that would then flourish in the postwar era.