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The Swiss community in Genoa from the Old Regime to the late nineteenth century

2008; Routledge; Volume: 13; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13545710802010925

1469-9583

Luca Codignola, M. Elisabetta Tonizzi,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

Abstract Drawing on extensive and original archival research, this article is the first to reconstruct the origins and historical development of the Swiss community of Genoa from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth century. During these four centuries, the Swiss were constant and significant agents of the Genoese economy and society. The Swiss presence in the city dates back to the mid 1500s, when Swiss soldiers were the predominant component of the army of the Republic. In the 1700s the Swiss community broadened its economic scope and varied its social configuration. It consisted of both a well-established Protestant, élite of merchant-bankers and textile entrepreneurs and a lower layer of craftsmen, confectioners, street vendors and servants. By the end of the 1700s the Swiss élite was such a thriving and well-integrated group that in 1799 Genoa was selected to be the seat of the first Swiss consulate of the Italian peninsula, the second in Europe after Bordeaux (1798). From the Restoration (1815) to Italian Unification (1861), the Swiss merchant-bankers and textile industrialists continued to be active promoters of the city's economic and trading system. In the decades after Unification (1861–80s), Swiss capital investments moved into new economic sectors (steam-shipping and maritime insurance) that contributed to the modernization of the Genoese and Italian merchant fleet. During the nineteenth century the Swiss community created its own social spaces and identity within the city – a church, a cemetery, a school, and a charitable foundation. As in many other northern Italian cities, the consolidation of the community's external image did not weaken the Swiss élite's integration with the local Genoese upper class. Keywords: Republic of GenoaSwiss mercenariesGenoa's economic developmentSwiss entrepreneurship abroadshipping activitiesurban-élite sociability Notes 1 Although this article is the result of a collaborative effort, Luca Codignola is responsible for the part dealing with the period up to 1815 and M. Elisabetta Tonizzi for that after 1815. 2 The population of Switzerland was roughly 1,200,000 in 1700, 1,600,000 in 1800 and 2,190,000 in 1837. 3 Archivio di Stato di Genova, Archivio Segreto (ASG, AS), vol. 2782: 16–18; vol. 2794: 302–25, 334–8, 340–3, 385, 719–20. 4 ASG, AS, vols. 1697, 2940; ASG, Sala Foglietta (SF), vol. 336; ASG, AS, vol. 1697. For 1708, see ASG, AS, vol. 2940, Fribourg to [Genoa], Fribourg, 5 October 1708. 5 For example ASG, AS, vol. 2794: 527–8, Charles de Montenach to Doge and Procurators of the Republic of Genoa, Fribourg, 7 March 1622. 6 Pietro Morettini (1663–1737), a Swiss engineer born in Cerentino, near Locarno, moved to Genoa in 1717 and was also employed in Rome, Turin and Venice. See Forti (Citation1992: 63). 7 ASG, Sala Senarega (SS), vol. 227; ASG, SF, vols. 334, 371. 8 See ASG. SF, vols. 336, 371, 372. The Jost Battalion was disbanded in 1747. A Grisons regiment, known as Reggimento Gianetti and from 1757 as Reggimento Jenatsch, was created in 1756 and disbanded in 1765. See Piana (Citation1998: 407–39). 9 ASG, SF, vol. 332. See also ASG, AS, vol. 1699, Relazione del Magistrato di Guerra, Genoa, March 1730. 10 ASG, AS, vol. 2794: 753–4, Marquis of Castellar to Carlos Alfonso Besler, Madrid, 2 July 1728; 749–52, Canton of Uri to Genoa's Doge, Altdorf, 29 August 1728; ASG, AS, vol. 2940, Magistrato di Guerra to Collegi, Genoa, 30 January 1737; ASG, SF, vol. 336, Agente pedemontano to Magistrato di Guerra, Milan, 14 March 1737; ASG, SF, vol. 336, Grisons officers to Magistrato di Guerra, Chur, 29 April 1737. 11 ASG, AS, vol. 2923, Witness report, Novi, 3 June 1737; ASG, AS, vol. 1704; ASG, AS, vol. 2924. In the 1730s, Domenico Tini, a Swiss merchant active in Genoa, was one of these brokers. 12 ASG, Repubblica Ligure (RL), vol. 568/II, Cautele concertate, e che giornalmente si praticano nel transito per lo Stato della Repubblica delle Reclute Svizzere destinate a servigio di Spagna, e di Napoli, Genoa, [post 1795]; ASG, AS, vol. 2924. 13 ASG, AS, vol. 2782: 19–24; vol. 2794: 326–54. Gazzola (Citation1981: 361–410) has partially examined this correspondence. 14 ASG, AS, vol. 2794: 702–13, 715–18, 692–9. 15 ASG, AS, vol. 2913, Ricordo ritrovato nella cassetta degli avvisi nella sessione del Minor Consiglio, [Genoa], 14 May [1790], with Ludolf's opinion, enclosed. See also Bitossi (Citation1995: 454). 16 Caglioti (Citation2006), who does not mention Mathias Schläpfer or Johann Jakob Meyer's Genoa stint. 17 200 ans de Représentation Consulaire Suisse à Bordeaux 1798–1998, (1998); Heckner (Citation2000: 17–35); Codignola and Zanini (Citation2000: 40–51); Schnyder (Citation2000: 55–67). 18 See a Domenico Tini mentioned in note 11. Johann Speich and Michael Speich, originally from Glarus, are known for their production of mezzari, a typical Genoese decorative tapestry; Schnyder (Citation2000: 57–8). 19 ASG, AS, vol. 2959, Ulrich and Wüst to Genoa magistrates, Zürich, 19 January 1805; ASG, AS, vol. 2959, memorandum by Girolamo Luigi Francesco Durazzo and Lanzola, [Genoa], 4 February 1805; ASG, AS, vol. 2959, memorandum by Durazzo and Lanzola, [Genoa], 9 March 1805. 20 American Philosophical Society, B: F85, Franklin Papers, vol. 28, no. 142, Frédéric-Robert Meuricoffre to Benjamin Franklin, Paris, 5 June 1783; also vol. 41, no. 54, [Frédéric-Robert Meuricoffre] to [Franklin], [Paris, post 5 June 1783, not 1778]; on the Meuricoffre family, Caglioti (Citation2006: 151, 165, 254, 324). 21 Research in Archivio di Stato di Genova was done by Codignola. Research in Berne's Swiss Federal Archives by Schnyder. 22 In the second half of the eighteenth century, a Henri Bègue and a Jacob Schläpfer (1760) also appear as part of the De la Rüe network. Aubert (Citation1984: 243–85). 23 ASG, Prefettura Francese (PF), Ministero delle Finanze, vol. 173, no. 73, Memorandum by [Marie-Juste-Antoine de La Rivoire, marquis de La Tourette], [Genoa], [1808]. 24 ASG, PF, vol. 173, no. 166, Sottoprefetto di Novi to [Marc-Antoine Bourdon de Vatry]. Novi, 3 June 1813; ASG, PF, vol. 173, no. 167, Schläpfer to [Bourdon de Vatry], 18 June 1813; ASG, PF, vol. 173, no. 167, Jean-Jacques Meyer to [Bourdon de Vatry], Genoa. 13 October 1813. On mixed marriages in Naples, see Rovinello (Citation2006: 269–72). 25 ASG, AS, vol. 2953, mazzo 9, cartella 31, Jean Furse to Giambattista Rossi, Genoa, 18 October 1801; also ASG, AS, vol. 2953, mazzo 9, cartella 31, Furse to Rossi, Genoa, 5 November 1801. 26 Verbali del Consiglio comunale di Genova, 1858: 182–85; Colombi (Citation1938: 131–50); Morabito (Citation1991: 511–33); see also Mattei (Citation1949). 27 Genoa's contribution to the Gotthard tunnel amounted to 10 per cent of the whole Italian allocation. 28 ASG, Sanità, Registri passeggeri per l'estero, 1631–4. 29 Almanacco del commercio per l'anno bisestile 1816, Genova, 1816: 33–51; Almanacco del Ducato di Genova per l'anno del Signore 1826, Genova, 1826: 97–115. L'Indicatore ossia Guida per la Città e Ducato di Genova, Genova, 1836: 177–88. 30 Notz was consul from 1830 to 1850; Schnyder (Citation2000: 67–71). 31 ASG, Camera di Commercio, 510: 49–65. 32 Archivio della Chiesa Riformata Svizzera di Genova (ACRSG) Régistre des mariages (RM), from 1824, not paginated. 33 He was consul from to 1876 to 1886; Schnyder (Citation2000: 102–6). 34 ASG, Prefettura Italiana, Gabinetto, 3/66, according to this source, in 1829 there were in Genoa ‘thousands’ of servants, both in private houses and public establishments; their country of origin is unknown. 35 ASG, Fondo Università, Magistrato del Protomedicato, 2281, 1842–9; 2312, 1840–1. 36 Archivio Storico del Comune di Genova, Culte protestant, Registre de naissance, 1853; ACRSG, RM, from 1824. 37 As reported in ACRSG, Copie de l'Acte des reglements et statuts pour l'église protestante reformée de Gênes, 1824. 38 Ospedale evangelico internazionale 1857–1957, Genova, 1958; Pons (Citation2007). 39 Archivio Unione Elvetica, Atto notarile Istituzione Unione Elvetica in Genova, 8 July 1889. 40 This writer is presently engaged in an extensive research on the Genoese élite sociability, partially published, based on a vast variety of sources, from which it is possible to check the significant presence of Swiss members in all cultural and recreational institutions founded in Genoa over the nineteenth century. See Tonizzi (Citation2004b: 323–341).