Contemporary of every age: Gaetano Filangieri between public happiness and institutional economics

Transcription

1 MPRA Munch Personal RePEc Archve Contemporary of every age: Gaetano Flanger between publc happness and nsttutonal economcs Mara Slva Balzano and Gaetano Vecchone and Vera Zamagn Unversty of Naples Federco II, Unversty of Naples Federco II, Unversty of Bologna 10 January 2018 Onlne at MPRA Paper No , posted 13 February :03 UTC

2 Contemporary of every age: Gaetano Flanger between publc happness and nsttutonal economcs 1 Mara Slva Balzano Gaetano Vecchone Vera Zamagn Unversty of Naples Federco II Unversty of Naples Federco II Unversty of Bologna [As long as] the evls whch afflct humanty are not yetremoved; errors, and prejudces whch perpetuate errors, have ther advocates and partzans; and truth s known but to a few prvleged ndvduals, and s stll kept at an awful dstance from the thrones of kngs, t s the duty of the scholar and the sage to endeavour to eradcate the former, and to proclam, support and llustrate the latter. If the lghts they scatter are not useful n ther own tmes, and ther own country, they may enjoy the certanty of havng served other countres and succeedng generatons. Ctzens of the world, they are contemporares of every age, the unverse s ther fatherland, the earth s ther school, and posterty wll be ther dscples. Gaetano Flanger, The Scence of Legslaton [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806] Abstract In the decades around the turn of the eghteenth century, Naples was captal of the Kngdom of the Two Scles and Europe s thrd most populous cty. From the early decades of the eghteenth to the end of the nneteenth century, the cty spawned a school of ntellectuals that, though predomnantly jurdcal n cast, nevertheless dsplayed a surprsngly substantal openness to a new approach to the socal scences, whch had developed above all n France, heavly nfluenced by the natural scences and the expermental method. In harmony wth Enlghtenment thought, Gaetano Flanger was the precursor, two centures back, of the prncples of ndssoluble nteracton between formal and nformal nsttutons and economc development, between governance and socal feedback, that are pllars of today s school of nsttutonal economcs. Hs wrtngs antcpated, n a number of respects, conceptual approaches adopted by later scholars. The present paper offers an nsttutonal focus on hs work, referrng above all to Douglass North and hs treatment of the role of the Glorous Revoluton. 1 Ths paper s a thoroughly revsed and extended verson of Balzano and Vecchone (2015), Gaetano Flanger e l sttuzonalsmo economco, Rvsta economca del Mezzogorno, 29 (3-4), , Il Mulno, Bologna. We decded to extend and translate the orgnal verson because we beleve that the work by Flanger deserves an nternatonal vsblty n the academc communty. 1

3 1. Gaetano Flanger: Lfe and hstorcal context Gaetano Flanger was a leadng exponent of the Neapoltan Enlghtenment, well known abroad and engaged n an epstolary relatonshp wth Benjamn Frankln durng the years of the Amercan Declaraton of Independence. Hs wrtngs antcpated, n a number of respects, conceptual approaches adopted by later scholars. 1 The present paper offers an nsttutonal focus on hs work, referrng above all to Douglass North and hs treatment of the role of the Glorous Revoluton. After a bref bography n secton one, hs ntellectual profle s traced n secton two. Secton three sets out the man aspects of hs work, and secton four connects hs thought wth the school of nsttutonal economcs. Secton fve recounts the events that led to the rse and fall of the Parthenopean Republc n 1799, and secton sx concludes. The thrd of eleven chldren of an ancent, noble house of Norman orgn, Gaetano Flanger (born Cercola, 1753, ded Vco Equense, 1788), though he was gven the tradtonal strct mltary educaton of the younger sons of the noblty, turned at a very young age to the study of law, phlosophy and poltcs. In 1774, at just 22 years of age, he publshed hs reflectons on questons of domestc poltcs. Hs ntellgent exposton won approval and agreement on many fronts, n Italy and abroad (Ferrone, 2003). The wdespread prase for Flanger drew the attenton of the Bourbon court, and n 1777 he was named Majordomo of the Week and Gentleman of the Chamber, as well as Offcer of the Royal Corps of naval volunteers at the servce of Kng Ferdnand IV of Bourbon, the son of Charles III of Span (Flanger, 2003). Durng the formatve years for Flanger s thought, the monarches and prncpaltes of Europe had to confront the deas of lberalsm and democracy espoused by the thnkers of the day, who were not dssuaded by the barrers of censorshp, as Flanger hmself recalled: the obstacle now surmounted s by no means nconsderable. We have assumed the rght of thnkng and wrtng wth a freedom that does equal honor to the Prnces who permt, and to the subjects who use ther permsson wth proprety and advantage (Flanger, 2003, p. 3) [Translaton by W. Kendall, 1791]. From Sweden to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, from the Russa of Catherne the Great to the Austra of Mara Theresa of Habsburg, everywhere t was plan to see that the varous soveregns were seekng to dgest the ntellectual elaboratons of Englsh wrters lke Locke, Hume and Blackstone, whch had fertlzed the mnds of such French phlosophes as Montesqueu, Rousseau and Dderot, spreadng then through the most of Europe. Subsequently labelled as enlghtened despots, some of these soveregns of the late eghteenth century were dstngushed by ther reformst deas; ther abandonment of the dogmas of crown and church and ther advocacy of the prncples of rato drew them away from the anachronstc hertage of the Mddle Ages. On such auspces of a renovaton of 2

4 governments, Flanger undertook hs monumental Scence of Legslaton, n whch the deas of the enlghtenment thnkers of Europe, but, above all, of thnkers close to hs own lfe, lke Gambattsta Vco and Bernardo Tanucc, 2 merged wth hs concrete experence of the Bourbon court. Flanger s entry nto the royal entourage took hm to the center of the artfcal world of the courtesan, n close contact wth the great corrupton revolvng around the Bourbon crown. The lack of a stable bourgeos class n md-18th-century Naples (Cuoco, 1980), the survval of a feudalsm that had already been abandoned n the northern part of Italy (V. Zamagn, 2017) and the feelngs of mstrust and extraneousness wth respect to publc nsttutons (Macry, 2012) rendered the dstance between the arstocracy and the average ctzen, between the noble palaces and the msery of many cty streets, palpable. All ths, together wth the evdent condtons of degradaton observable both n and outsde the kngdom s captal cty, further underpnned the crtcal approach of hs ntellectual msson. The ntal sectons of the Scence came out n 1780 (Flanger, 2003). Unfortunately, Flanger s dedcaton to an deal born n hs youth and mantaned wth constancy soon had to reckon wth health problems that worsened steadly wth the passage of tme. Hs marrage n 1783 wth Countess Carolne Fremdel of Pressburg, who was n Naples n the entourage of Queen Mara Carolna of Austra, allowed hm to move to the relatve quet of Cava de Trren and rest from courtly socety. Durng hs absence from the Bourbon court, Flanger unflaggngly composed new parts of hs work, completng the thrd and fourth books, but wthout renouncng the company of frends and admrers; he made Cava the destnaton of an ntellectual plgrmage (D Alessandro, 1994). Unfortunately, hs courtly commtments tore hm away from the soltude of Cava and brought hm back nto the royal entourage n 1787, to take part n the Supreme Councl of Fnance. He was therefore oblged to move back to the palace of hs older brother Cesare n the heart of Naples. Unhapply, hs falng health could not wthstand the pace of hs heavy courtly work load. So he decded to ask for a royal permt of leave n 1788 to go to Vco Equense, n the castle of hs sster Teresa, a healther envronment. However, hs health dd not beneft as hoped from rest and the clean ar of the pennsula of Sorrento, and on 21 July 1788, a few months after hs arrval, he ded n that castle at the age of just Gaetano Flanger: cvl enlghtenment thnker In the decades around the turn of the eghteenth century, Naples was captal of the Kngdom of the Two Scles and Europe s thrd most populous cty, behnd London and Pars (Malanma, 2006). From the early decades of the eghteenth to the end of the nneteenth century, the cty spawned a school of ntellectuals that, though predomnantly jurdcal n cast, nevertheless dsplayed a 3

5 surprsngly substantal openness to a new approach to the socal scences, whch had developed above all n France, heavly nfluenced by the natural scences and the expermental method. The leadng jursts thus began to grapple wth poltcal scence, commerce, and the economy, at the same tme as Adam Smth was draftng and publshng The Wealth of Natons, whch lad the groundwork of modern economcs (Amatucc, 2010). Antono Genoves, Gaetano Flanger, Gacnto Dragonett, and Ferdnando Galan were some of the scholars who made eghteenthcentury Naples a lvely workshop of deas, markedly lberal and egaltaran; together wth ther colleagues of the Mlanese enlghtenment, they founded the school of cvl economy. Ths paradgm of economc thought fell nto protracted oblvon, mostly because t was foregn to the Anglo-Amercan manstream of the nneteenth and twenteth centures (Brun and Zamagn, 2013). Among the major works of ths perod, certanly one of the most outstandng s Flanger s Scence of Legslaton, wrtten between 1780 and The fervor of the Enlghtenment, whch swept through the natons of Europe, ncludng the Kngdom of the Two Scles, nspred Flanger s effort to draft a clear and smple text that could serve as a gude to the monarchs of all of Europe n producng laws and codes observant of the prncples of reform that t was hs ntent to ntroduce (Flanger, 2003). Ths Enlghtenment nspraton found fertle terran n the debate, domnant n the economcs lterature of the eghteenth century, over the motvatons of human acton n an economc system. Alongsde self-nterest, the Italan enlghtenment school also recognzed the exstence of hgher motvatons bearng on the publc nterest, or publc happness. 3 Defnng the obstacles to the pursut of ths publc happness, whch Flanger called the happness of peoples and whch conssted n the postve nteracton between government acton and popular response, and desgnng the reforms necessary to ts attanment provded the mpulse for hm, from hs youth, to produce a unversal work, one that he conceved as vald for all realms and every tme. It has been argued that the fve books of The Scence of Legslaton, gven ther fame and the unversal concepts espoused, nspred some of the hstorc soco-poltcal acts of the late eghteenth century, such as the Declaraton of Independence by the Amercan colonsts, the French Revoluton, and above all the Parthenopean Republc of 1799 (Ferrone, 2003). The Scence was consdered mmedately as a complex work wth a multdscplnary framework. The man topc of European legslaton, n fact, ntersects repeatedly wth emprcal studes on the condtons of the populaton n the Kngdom of the Two Scles. Focusng n partcular on the Neapoltan communty, Flanger denounced the severe dscrepancy between the necesstes of the great majorty of people and the napproprate solutons offered by exstng laws and developed a 4

6 ratonal, constructve crtcsm of the neffcacy of Bourbon governance due to ts tendency to mantan archac, anachronstc practces (Ferrone, 2003). Hs jurdcal and phlosophcal tranng, drawng above all on the teachngs of Montesqueu and Antono Genoves (Brun, 2006), enabled hm to develop profound nsghts nto such hghly delcate ssues of the day as feudalsm and ecclesastcal donated propertes. Hs approach to the problems of Naples at the end of the century was orgnal, and above all modern and lberal. 4 In vew of the foregong, t cannot be consdered napproprate to compare Flanger s method of nqury and research to that of the nsttutonal school of economcs. A number of analysts of the Neapoltan school of cvl economy of whch Flanger was a leadng exponent (Brun, 2006; Becchett, 2011; Brun and S. Zamagn, 2013; V. Zamagn, 2017) have emphaszed the centralty n ths school of the themes of publc and prvate trust, confdence n publc nsttutons, happness and recprocty. Yet as far as we know, no study has related these themes more specfcally to Gaetano Flnger, although he often explctly connected hs thnkng to confdence and publc trust as both precondtons and ndspensable results of effectve governmental acton. Further, wth hs teachngs and admontons, Flanger was one of the frst scholars to consder nformal nsttutons, whch he traces to socal customs, as t can be seen n the followng passage: Experence tself, on the contrary, s what shows me the mpotence of law wthout custom. It s what shows me how n a corrupt socety the very remedes to the corrupton of the people become a source of corrupton (Flanger, 2003, p. 285) [Own translaton]. He confrms, n accordance wth hs enlghtenment vewpont, the supremacy of the rule of law and of formal nsttutons n theory, but he observes that customs often preval over the law n practce. Ths contrast between two prncples s recurrent n hs work on other themes as well, and t s precsely n ths multfaceted vsons that we fnd the essence, and perhaps the greatness, of ths author. Flanger was certanly a lberal thnker of the natural law school (Pecora, 2003), a proponent of free enterprse and the abolton of all prvleges, an advocate of free trade, a frend of the Amercan patrot Benjamn Frankln; but he also preached the necessty of pursung the prosperty of the entre naton wth economc polces for redstrbuton, drected to the common good. He was a mason, a leadng fgure n the Neapoltan masonc lodge, but also an ntellectual forged by the teachngs of two learned Benedctne monks; a man who worked trelessly and wth a strong nsttutonal sense at court durng the regn of Ferdnand IV, but who n prvate, n letters to hs frends, voced hs profound mpatence wth the hypocrsy, arrogance and superfcalty of the courtesans and counclors of the Kngdom. He was a scholar who burned the mdnght ol to delve deeper nto hs studes and fnsh what he held dearest, namely hs Scence of Legslaton. He combned hs Norman blood he was of Norman orgns wth that of the Kngdom of the Two 5

7 Scles, the arena of hs lfe. Precsely ths mult-dmensonalty s the sgn of the depth of one of the great European ntellectuals of the eghteenth century. 3. The Scence of Legslaton Gaetano Flanger s Scence of Legslaton s consdered as one of the most mportant wrtngs of the Enlghtenment. Bert (2003) has called t a true compendum of that ntellectual movement s phlosophy. The orgnal plan called for seven volumes, but varous contngences resulted n ts fnal fve-book structure. The frst four were publshed by Flanger hmself between 1780 and 1785, the ffth posthumously n 1788, thanks to hs frend, the Marqus Donato Tommas. The last two books were lost durng the dsorders of 1799, when Palazzo Flanger, n the heart of the Greco-Roman part of Naples, was sacked and burned. Upon publcaton, the frst volumes won wdespread prase but also managed to anger the hgh ranks of Neapoltan socety: feudal lords and much of the noblty and the ecclesastcal class. Flanger s arguments aganst donatons reserved to the Church and hs scathng polemcs on the anachronstc survval of feudal law caused hm no few problems, especally from 1784, when the fourth book came out and the entre work was put on the Index (Ferrone, 2003; Ruggero, 1999). For hs part, Flanger never appeared to feel threatened or harmed by these dffcultes. He wrote to a frend: Persecuton by a few monsters callng themselves barons, rather than dscourage me have nstead hardened my sprt. I wll show that ther supposed rghts are ncompatble wth cvl lberty It s hgh tme, by now, that ths barbarous plant be rpped out from the cultured natons of Europe. Governments must be nduced to extrpate ts very roots. 5 [Own translaton]. He let hs work speak for tself aganst the calumnes and harmful actons drected at hm and persevered n the wrtng, publcaton, translaton and dffuson of the work both n and beyond Italy, 6 establshng relatonshps everywhere, from France to the Unted States of Amerca, as s attested by hs volumnous correspondence wth Benjamn Frankln. 7 Frankln s correspondence wth Flanger, at least that whch survved the arson attack on Palazzo Flanger durng the dsorders of 1799, testfes to the affectve and poltcal bond between the two men (D Alessandro, 1994; Pera et al., 2011). In fact, hs Amercan frend s experence n the colony of Pennsylvana was one of the compellng motvatons for Flanger s work, encouragng hm to support the lberaldemocratc cause n Europe. Although he worked under the shadow of Bourbon absolutsm, he dd not hde hs hopes of contrbutng to the formaton of a representatve, democratc government patterned on the Amercan model n the old Contnent (Ferrone, 2003). As he hmself noted, my purpose s none other than to facltate the soveregns of ths century n the enterprse of a new 6

8 legslaton (Flanger, 2003, p. 4). The pllars of ths new legslaton were to be two essental prncples: that of preservaton and that of tranqulty. In hs own words: Preservaton ncludes exstence, tranqullty ncludes securty... It follows, therefore, that rches n a rch state should be properly dstrbuted. If man, however, wshes not only for preservaton but tranqullty, ths wll not be suffcent. He must have confdence... - (Flanger, 2003, p. 12) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. It s precsely n ths way of concevng hs two prncples that Flanger ntroduces hs typcal theme of trust, fully developed many years later by the nsttutonal economsts as the ndspensable ngredent n a socety nterested n the gradual ncrease n collectve happness. Flanger proceeds n ths orgnal approach, not only dentfyng the prncples but also establshng ther operatve functons through the concepts of absolute goodness and relatve goodness (Gannola, 2012). The soveregn (the legslator) must thus hew to the prncples of the preservaton and the tranqulty of the ctzenry as the sole and unversal object of legslaton, through the mantenance of a good degree of fdes publca between soveregn, magstracy and ctzenry. These objectves have to be pursued, operatvely, through the enactment of laws asprng to absolute goodness understood as referrng to unversal laws and prncples and to relatve goodness referrng to the dversty of natons and of the ctzens subject to the law. Flanger hmself says that: absolute goodness of laws conssts n ther agreement wth the unversal prncples of moralty, common to all natons and all governments, and adapted to all clmates (Flanger, 2003, p. 15). But he also sees the need for relatve goodness where The dversty of characters, genus, dsposton, and nconstancy of men, communcate ther nfluence to poltcal bodes, just as the defects of a partcular part affect the whole (Flanger, 2003, p. 18) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. The metculous analyss conducted by the author, especally n the frst three books, the heart of the entre work, lays bare the lmtatons of a legal order not conceved to serve the needs of the ctzenry, by retracng the enormous problems found n practcally all the realms of Europe n the eghteenth century. In the specfc case of the Kngdom of Naples, the concentraton of wealth, the barrers to free trade, the vexatous taxaton of the people, together wth the prvleges of the wealthy classes, rfe corrupton, and the overbearng power of the feudal lords all appeared as the consequences of an nsttutonal order ruled by obsolete codes utterly napproprate to the needs of a modern naton (V. Zamagn, 2012). Accordng to Flanger, the retenton and applcaton of norms nconsstent wth the effectve necesstes of the naton worked to the advantage only of a tny part of the populace: In the present condton of Europe, the whole s confned to a few hands, and the whole should be dstrbuted n many. Where wealth s restrcted to a few hands, [the] prvate 7

9 happness of a few members wll surely not make for the happness of the entre body, ndeed, as I have sad, t wll be ts run (Flanger, 2003, p. 56) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. Even the European custom of passng the entre famly estate to the frst-born son was an mpedment, de facto, to a more just and equtable dstrbuton of wealth. 8 He held that the retenton of the rule of prmogenture (whch affected hm personally, as the thrd-born) was the concrete demonstraton that wthn the nnermost fulcrum of socety, namely the nsttuton of the famly, there could nest a fatal error. A father who sees numerous chldren as a burden, the junor scons who envy the frst-born whose brthrght deprves them of all wealth, represented the reproducton, n a nutshell, of the conduct of all of European socety, n whch a partal legslaton favoured by governments fathers was n the nterests only of arstocrats and ecclesastcs, the frst born of the estates. These deleterous class customs had therefore to be urgently subverted, openng the doors to a more equtable dstrbuton of socal welfare: These few great men, surrounded wth a crowd of mserable wretches, do not form the happness of a naton, or consttute ts rches. The common nterest of the greater part of the communty, and the welfare of the greatest number of famles, are the true barometer of the prosperty of a state, and the sole nstruments of ts felcty (Flanger, 2003, p. 56)[Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. The specal dffculty that he faced n formulatng hs work lay n hs crtque of a number of foundng nsttutons of the socety about whch and for whch he was wrtng. The mercantlst, strongly protectonst vew of the economy, 9 the weght of despotc laws, and above all the anachronstc nterference of feudalsm were problems that afflcted much of Europe, and n partcular the Kngdom of Naples (Ferrone, 2003; Zamagn, 2012). True to the scentfc method and concrete proof, llustratng the nherent nconsstency of these nsttutons, Flanger set out acute, topcal reflectons that revealed a complex, multdscplnary approach placng specal emphass on the concepts of collectve happness and trust whch we wll return to later. Hs crtque centered on feudal nsttutons, whch to hs way of thnkng consttuted the worst brake on the naton s socal and economc advance. In evdent contradcton wth the objectve of natonal happness, feudalsm left n the hands of the barons the management and admnstraton of lands, related goods and, above all, justce: A left-over from the ancent feudal government leaves stll to the barons crmnal jursprudence. Ths prerogatve, of whch they are jealous n the extreme, forms the frst lnk n a long chan of dsorders that completely destroy our cvl lberty (Flanger, 2003, p. 165) [Own translaton]. 8

10 The scope of the noblty s power over the socal envronment that they ruled was the source of numerous problems, frst of all the plague of corrupton, whch was especally evdent n the judcal sphere. The weght of baronal wll and whm was such as to determne the course of entre trals: He the baron can choose the most nqutous man and confer upon hm authorty, of whch he may abuse at wll wth the greatest of ease. Ths magstrate, I say, s no more than a vle, wretched mercenary of the baron s. When the judge has decreed the sentence, n the case of many crmes the baron can ether, wth the stroke of authorty, accord total mpunty or brng down upon hm all the rgor of the law (Flanger, 2003, pp ) [Own translaton]. Ths amounted to outrght abuse of power, whch jursts and thnkers sought to lmt. In fact, so as to attrbute greater power, wthn the judcal system, to the law, judcal nterpretaton was denounced because t operated outsde the control of the law, whle these thnkers favoured nstead the demonstraton of sentences, n ther search for a remedy to the excessve power of magstrates and ther corrupton at the hands of the barons (Ferrone, 2003). The volent reactons of the feudal world were not long n materalzng; a case n pont s that of the Prnce of Strongol, Don Salvatore Pgnatell, who publshed n1784 the pamphlet Lettera apologetca al dotto sgnor Guseppe Grppa crca l opera del Cavaler Gaetano Flanger (Apologetc letter to the learned Guseppe Grppa concernng the work of the Cavaler Gaetano Flanger) (Ruggero, 1999). Flanger, whle frontally assaled the baronal caste, sought to explan the reasons for hs opposton, suggestng possble reforms that could mprove the lot of all members of socety and not of sngle subjects alone: Would the extncton of feudal jursdcton perhaps be a true loss for the barons? Would the noblty, losng such prerogatve, perhaps lose ts luster or ts dgnty? I know many segneurs who pray for the abolton of ther jursdcton; I know others who defend t n good fath because they have never abused of t (Flanger, 2003, pp ) [Own translaton]. The great object of collectve happness thus entaled the abolton of the noblty of blood, to be replaced by a noblty of mert no longer sustaned by power passed down through lneage but by the honor and justce of one s own acts, whch must contrbute to progress and thus be converted from an mpedment to an ndspensable nstrument of the economc growth and socal advancement of the naton. By means of the reforms proposed n The Scence, from the free market to the ntroducton of a democratc legslatve apparatus, from the abolton of customs tarffs to the creaton of nfrastructures to facltate foregn trade, Flanger sought to lay the foundatons for the formaton of a naton held together by a central power representng the ndvdual socal subjects, 9

11 wth laws and measures that fostered wdespread growth, sketchng out a new socety to be born from below, essentally lberal and democratc. 4. Flanger, nsttutonalsm and the Glorous Revoluton Gaetano Flanger s Scence enqures nto the consequences of the prnce s falure to pursue the goal of collectve happness. The sgnfcance of the bond between people and government, on whch hs dscusson of the qualty of European legslaton at the end of the eghteenth century hnges, s all the more topcal today n the context of modern nsttutonal economcs. Hs arguments, whch were developed, needless to say, n a far removed, very dfferent hstorcal context, nevertheless reveal an unexpectedly modern character. Preservaton and tranqulty, he observes, are based on trust: From the government [man] must not fear the usurpaton of hs rghts; must trust that the guardans of the laws wll not by a breach of ther solemn dutes make use of them as nstruments of hs oppresson; on hs fellow ctzens he must rely for domestc peace, for hs protecton under the laws, tll by crmes he may have forfeted hs clam to t (Flanger, 2003, p. 12) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. Most nterestngly, Flanger also refers expressly to the protecton of prvate property, ndvdual freedom of choce, the necessty of publc protecton of labour, so as every man could confdent that the property, whch he has acqured ether by a just and legal ttle, wthout the nfracton of the several rghts of others, or by the labour of hs hands, shall be defended by the force of publc authortes (Flanger, 2003, pp ) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. Douglass North, Nobel przewnner for economcs n 1993, n a celebrated artcle co-authored wth B.R. Wengast and publshed n the Journal of Economc Hstory (1989), sets out the poltcal and socal causes of the Glorous Revoluton of 1688 n England and ts postve effects. Dstngushed from other revolutons by the substantal absence of conflct and battle, the Glorous Revoluton, wth the sgnature of a Bll of Rghts by the new kng, Wllam III of Orange, put an end to the attempt by James II of Stuart to restore absolute monarchy and so re-establshed, on sounder foundatons, the consttutonal monarchy born wth the Magna Charta n 1215, whch asserted the rule of common laws over the arbtrary wll of the kng (Duroselle, 1991). North s artcle focuses on the poltcal and economc causes that facltated the overthrow of James II and set England on a path towards unquestoned parlamentary monarchy. He makes t clear that the reacton of Englsh socety, and especally of the Parlament, to Kng James s actons, whch brought about the Glorous Revoluton, was essental n projectng the country towards a seres of 10

12 transformatons that fostered the ndustral revoluton of the next century. In the vew of North and Wengast, t was the changes to nformal nsttutons that altered the formal nsttutons of eghteenth-century England and subsequently launched the economc and poltcal processes of formaton of publc trust that unchaned the forces of the frst ndustral revoluton. The absolutsm of the Stuart monarchs, who regned from 1603 on, had undermned the foundatons of property rghts, culmnatng n the complete loss of trust on the part of nvestors, who were utterly unprotected n ther dealngs, whle confscatons and arbtrary taxaton destroyed the trust of small and large property holders alke: The Stuarts secured most of ther loans under threat; hence they are known as forced loans. Repayment was hghly unpredctable and never on the terms of the orgnal agreement. In the forced loan of 1604/5 the Crown borrowed 111,891, nomnally for one year; although ultmately repad, 20,363 was stll due as late as December The forced loan of 1617 (just under 100,000) was not repad untl The Crown behaved smlarly on loans from 1611 and As tme went on, such loans came to look more and more lke taxes, but because these were nomnally loans the Crown dd not need parlamentary assent (North and Wengast, 1989, p. 810). After a frst revolt headed by Olver Cromwell, whch nstalled a republc that lasted only a few years, the return of the Stuarts rekndled the state of nsecurty, leadng to a general declne n commercal actvty. The Englsh Parlament, aware of the drastc effects of monarchcal despotsm, realzed that t needed to ntervene to modfy the rules. Although many MPs were n agreement wth the maneuvers of the Stuarts, a consensus was forged n favor of a Bll of Rghts guaranteeng stronger protecton of property rghts and lmtaton of the powers of the kng and the magstracy. The nsttutonal transformaton that followed had an enormous mpact on the evoluton of Englsh socety. The Bll of Rghts proved to be extremely well couched and succeeded n ts am of strengthenng publc trust, n that The Crown no longer called or dsbanded Parlament at ts dscreton alone (North and Wengast, 1989, p. 816). What s more, publc trust was cted explctly n a seres of prncples governng the fnancal management of the state. The supremacy of the common law lmted the arbtrary pretensons of the kng, and had an almost mmedate effect: the revval of nvestment and lendng to the Crown. As people knew of the legslatve lmts to the monarch s decson-makng power, they no longer feared the arbtrary revocaton of commtments and agreements, whch had undermned the certanty of law. Wthn just nne years from the Glorous Revoluton, the securty of contracts stpulated wth the Englsh Crown brought nterest rates down. The sharp ncrease n soveregn loans, accompaned by the declne n nterest rates, offered concrete proof that the overall rsk 11

13 assocated wth government msconduct had dmnshed consderably and paved the way to the enormous growth of the debt after Not even the greatly ncreased soveregn ndebtedness followng Wllam s war wth France could undermne the general trust of the Englsh ctzenry, who by then had been reassured by the exstence of a declaraton of lmtaton of powers sgned by the kng hmself. Further, prvate fnancal transactons also revved, stmulated by the mproved state of publc fnances. A whole seres of loans were stpulated to start up new ndustres, facltated by the relatvely modest terms mposed by the banks. Monopoles were turned over to Parlament, whch deprved the Crown of the prmary nstrument whereby for years t had procured rches outsde all control. The law guaranteeng freedom of petton, fnally, enabled the Englsh people to take a more actve part n parlamentary debates and be nvolved n government economc and polcy decsons. Ths new nsttutonal framework, by enhancng confdence n government behavor, lfted Englsh commerce out of stagnaton and stmulated nvestment. Unlke ther absolutst predecessors, the new economc nsttutons under parlamentary governance (ncludng the Bank of England, founded n 1694, and the Bubble Act of 1720) set England on the path towards generalzed growth, wth benefts for the whole socety. A century later, the path of growth and progress facltated by the nsttutons founded after the fall of James II culmnated n the ndustral revoluton. In a more recent work, North and Wengast, together wth J.J. Walls, revew the stages of development leadng from an authortaran government (whch they call natural state ) to a democratc open access order. They specfy that even followng the Glorous Revoluton the Englsh form of state could not yet be called democratc ths would come only n the nneteenth century but that t was certanly the most advanced natural state of ts epoch (North, Walls and Wengast, 2009). It s most nterestng that Flanger was equally clear on ths pont, descrbng the Englsh state as a mxed government, because t stll left too much power n the hands of the kng, both drectly as chef of the executve and ndrectly though hs capacty to nfluence parlamentary decsons and above all the secret formulaton of the laws (Flanger, 2003). Yet f the Glorous Revoluton dd not nstall a truly democratc government, t dd ntroduce substantal mprovements that had most benefcal economc effects. The economsts Daron Acemoglu and James Robnson (2012) also recognze the fundamental mportance, n the Glorous Revoluton, of nclusve economc and poltcal nsttutons n seventeenth-century England. Workng for the growth of the entre naton, these nsttutons consttuted the bass of the new path of natonal evoluton. 10 The establshment of prncples governng the Englsh poltcal apparatus that we can call consttutonal n a broad sense 11 12

14 resulted n a certan degree of legslatve order, lmtng the arbtrary power of the Crown n fscal matters and n decson power and dstrbutng power among members of socety. Together wth the commercal nterests of the bourgeos members of Parlament, the ncentves to publc and prvate entrepreneurshp and the subsequent development towards ndustralzaton were more than facltated by the consequences of the poltcal revoluton of A comparson of ths nsttutonal analyss wth Flanger s approach to the study of European legslaton n the eghteenth century shows just how modern hs reflectons on the close relatonshp between power and socety are. The smlarty of the theoretcal paradgms of the authors dscussed s found above all n the descrpton of absolutsm: the Stuart and Bourbon monarches are two good nstances of governments operatng through extractve nsttutons, n Acemoglu and Robnson s terms. In such systems, collaboraton between people and government s scant f not totally absent, owng to the lack of mutual trust. In hs account of the Glorous Revoluton, North brought out the profound consequences of governments actons for economc actvty. The ndssoluble relaton between government and socety, namely the need for legtmaton of the former by the approval of the latter, s perhaps the man mechansm used by Flanger to call the Bourbon court s attenton to the socal problems caused by the exstng legslatve apparatus. In hs reflectons on the relatonshp of power to socal needs n the Kngdom of the Two Scles, Flanger repeatedly nvokes natural law, whch explctly calls for assonance between power and people: It was dscovered that a publc force must be establshed superor to prvate force, and that ths publc force could only flow from the aggregate of the whole collected mass of prvate force that the publc force ought to be unted to publc reason [responsble for] the establshment of the rghts, and the regulaton of dutes and lastly, that by the lberty of acqurng every requste for personal preservaton and personal tranqullty, each ndvdual mght be amply recompensed for surrender of hs orgnal ndependence... Such appears to have been the frst ntenton of cvl socety and laws (Flanger, 2003, p. 12)[Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. Bearng n mnd the Amercan colonsts revoluton aganst the Brtsh mother country, Flanger stressed the mportance, for Europe s absolute monarches, of wnnng the postve approval of socety and ganng full legtmaton of ther actons. In order to produce concrete results, Flanger counseled the eghteenth-century monarchs to take as an unavodable objectve the algnment of the nstruments deployed n the exercse of power and the management of publc affars wth natonal necesstes, so as not to fnd themselves n volaton of the fundamental prncples that make a socety progressve. He nqured nto the manfestatons of dssent provoked by the msmanagement 13

15 of publc affars, consderng the defcency of the nsttutons as an alarm bell sgnalng the apex of msgovernment and statng unequvocally: When a naton s oblged to have recourse to contrbutons for the preservaton of ts happness, and the very means that should secure t render t mserable, the motve for contrbuton ceases, and the wants of the state are chmercal. The rght of exacton ceases, where the reason for payment ceases (Flanger, 2003, p. 98) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. Arbtrary royal power, economc and commercal backwardness, excessve poverty, and the multplcty of taxes n the Kngdom of the Two Scles may be compared to Douglass North s account of England before the Glorous Revoluton, whch fnally overthrew James II and eradcated the Stuart tyranny. Where North stresses the sgnfcance, for the credblty of the Englsh Crown, of the Bll of Rghts as guarantee for the preservaton of property rghts and lmtaton of governmental powers, n hs Scence Flanger repeatedly calls for the creaton, n the states of Europe, of a legslatve body capable of checkng the arbtrary decsons of the courts, feudal lords, and above all the monarchy tself: It should accordngly be establshed that n order to declare the truth of an accusaton the moral certanty of the judge should be unted wth the legal crteron: that n order to declare t false, both the one and the other should be lackng. [Thus] would the judge not possess unlmted arbtrary power, nether to condemn nor to acqut. The law would serve as brake on the arbtrarness of judges (Flanger, 2003, p. 154) [Own translaton]. Wth the events n Brtan s Amercan colones before hs eyes, Flanger saw that developments across the Atlantc, whch had culmnated there too n a Declaraton of Rghts, could be repeated n Europe, thanks to the manfest sgns of crss for the consttuted powers. Smlarly to North s portrayal of the Stuarts, The Scence reproaches the crowned heads of Europe of hs tmes as proponents of an authortaransm appled by extractve nsttutons, the perfect antthess of the requests for collectve happness and equtable dstrbuton of wealth. The news of the colonal nsurrecton n Amerca further stoked the hopes of Flanger and other European democrats for possble, mmnent socal and poltcal change n the drecton of lberal and democratc nsttutons, as the second volume of hs work makes abundantly clear. The clmate of transformaton n whch he was wrtng led hm, n the very shadow of the throne of Ferdnand IV, to denounce the falngs of the kng vs-à-vs hs kngdom and hs people: To demonstrate the defects or vces of government may be a crme n a dspotc state... It s an act of vrtue and a publc beneft n a free state... It would be an nsult to my own self and to the moderaton of the present soveregns of Europe, f n treatng of the obstacles... from a prncple of fear or adulaton, those were to be passed over n slence whch may be 14

16 attrbuted to the dfferent governments (Flanger, 2003, p. 68) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. He attacked the donaton of land and other property to the Church and the practce of vassalage as causes of socal mmoblty and poverty, a legacy of tyranny that was self-evdently ncompatble wth the expectatons of the day and that ncreased the dstance between soveregn and subjects. In Flanger s vew the ease wth whch accusatons could be lodged and the predsposton of the class of judges to corrupton was enhanced was made possble by legal codes that could be bypassed and were nconsstent wth the real necesstes of people. He found t smply mpossble to accept the excessve length of trals, the bas of judges, and the overweenng power of the barons all famlar plagues of the southern kngdom that were nadequately dscplned by the exstng legal order, whch was not up to combatng the deleterous customs rooted n socety. Gven the dramatc lack of certanty of law, n hs thrd book Flanger emphaszes the urgent need to modfy the sole nstrument capable of favorng justce, namely the law, to ensure a more just and mpartal judcal process: to exclude those judges not only who may be manfestly suspected of partalty but also those who for even the slghtest of causes should not mert one s full trust (Flanger, 2003, p. 158) [Own translaton]. In The Scence Flanger also makes an attempt to estmate the adverse effects of the protectonsm practced by the prnces of Europe usng objectve arguments statstcs, we would say today comparng the expectatons for sales wth realty, wth a vew to underscorng the mportance of free trade and freedom n agrculture through less ntrusve legslaton. As regards commerce, Flanger beleves n ts power to cvlze (Brun, 2006) and wth respect to the obstacles that mpede ts progress he asserts: On one sde, [progress] suffers from the neglgence of government, whch takes no pans to release t from ts obstructons; and on another from ts troublesome nterference, n wshng to control and regulate ts motves, ts enterprses, and ts nterest (Flanger, 2003, p.89) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. In hs treatse Flanger combats the ant-free-trade deology, whch n the lluson of fosterng natonal wealth only serves to enrch the noblty and the Crown, leavng the rest of the populaton n unchangng poverty. Unable to refer drectly to the royal house n hs denuncaton, he nevertheless offers a scrupulous account of the adverse repercussons of the mercantlst polcy sustaned by ts laws and subsequently recounts the benefcal consequences of the free market. The ports are mmedately shut, guards posted on the fronters... The expedent s a fatal one. It lowers the value of property, runs agrculture, dejects commerce, mpovershes the 15

17 country, depopulates the state... Wrters of poltcal economy have panted n the most lvely colours the fatal consequences of ths unhappy prejudce, from whch states have suffered so severely... [ But] Restrctons, whch formerly exsted, are stll n use. The fetters of exportaton... far from beng loosened, n many natons are ncreased. (Flanger, 2003, p. 68) [Translaton by Rchard Clayton, 1806]. A convnced belever n the cvlzng functon of the market, Flanger sets forth hs cvl vson of the free market, wth an account of the benefts and advantages of nternatonal trade: Ths prvate nterest of Span - about free commerce - s the nterest of Europe. As agrculture mproved... ts populaton would ncrease, and as ts populaton ncreased, ts demand for foregn goods would also multply. The more ts commerce wth Amerca was extended ts vessels would return wth rcher cargoes, and t would be more able to pay for the foregn artcles whch t wanted. France and England, and Italy would then fnd a greater want of ther manufactures n a naton wth greatest power to purchasng them, and they would both sell ther own goods at a hgher rate, and buy at a cheaper one the produce of Amerca, whch s now so necessary n Europe. Portugal s the next to be consdered... her great object should be to encourage an unversal concurrence or competton n the sale of her produce, and also n the mportaton of the foregn goods and merchandze whch she wants... [And] the same freedom of commerce whch was supposed to create the scarcty, would restore abundance, and the ports, open both to mportaton and exportaton, would n one nstance receve, and n another forward to other natons, the commodtes. The value of the products by these means would fnd ther true level. (Flanger, 2003, p. 68) [Own translaton]. Flanger s work does not refran from drastc condemnatons of Englsh mperalsm, as when he berates the Englsh people, because not content wth becomng a rch people, has sought to be the sole one (Flanger, 2003, p. 87). As Gannola (2012) observes, Flanger radcally rejects the Englsh model centered entrely on prvate property and n ts extreme form marked by the expropratons of commercal mperalsm. He prefers a system centerng on the rght to happness for the whole people, a rght whch not ncdentally s expressly cted n the Amercan Declaraton of Independence. Ths represents one of the great merts of the Neapoltan school of cvl economy. 5. Flanger s legacy and the weaknesses of the Parthenopean Republc Eleven years aftergaetanoflanger s death, Naples was the scene of a chan of events leadng to the proclamaton of the Parthenopean Republc. As a consequence of French revolutonary volence and bloodshed, the clmate n Ferdnand IV s Naples was radcally altered. The years of tmd reforms came to an abrupt end wth the decaptaton of Lous XVI of France and hs wfe Mare 16

18 Antonette Queen Mara Carolna s sster. Sezures of subversve materal, ncarceratons and crmnal convctons multpled throughout the kngdom, renderng palpably clear the drastc shft n the royal atttude towards blnd, fanatcal absolutsm. After the death of Lous XVI, the ctzens of the Bourbon realm were suffocated by repressve polces desgned to dsmantle every possble threat to monarchcal power, provokng general dscontent. When the course of the mltary conflct between France and the Italan states began to presage the mmnent conquest of Naples by the French troops, n December 1798 the kng and the royal famly abandoned the captal and fled to Palermo. The arrval of the French army under General Champonnet, supported by the cty s republcans, resulted n the proclamaton of the Parthenopean Republc on 23 January 1799 (Cuoco, 1980). Apparently, everythng favored the cause of the Neapoltan patrots, but actually the new democratc government was plagued by numerous and severe organzatonal shortcomngs, lackng both the power and the poltcal ntellgence essental to an nsttutonal transformaton n keepng wth the precepts of Flanger and the other Enlghtenment thnkers. The bourgeose of Naples was not strong lke that of England 12 and Flanger s work makes t easy to nfer the great rgdty of Bourbon law on trade, whch together wth deeper structural problems (Perotta and Sunna, 2012) prevented commerce from prosperng. 13 The ranks of the supporters of the republcan cause n 1799 were made up manly of youthful arstocrats, some of them scons of the great noble houses, who untl that moment had frequented the court of Ferdnand IV (Croce, 1912) and who had been among Flanger s dearest frends (Gannola, 2012). The struggle that they undertook aganst the Bourbons was the fortutous outcome of hstorcal events, precptated by the flght of the royal famly, prompted by admraton for the French example and the hope of launchng those reforms that formed the body of ther lberal deals, sustaned among others by Flanger s Scence. The French Drectorate had a voce n all the decsons taken by the republcan government of Naples, creatng a clmate of tenson between the two powers that made agreement dffcult and slowed the passage of all the major reforms establshed by the new Consttuton of the Parthenopean Republc, drafted by the legslatve commsson, whch were necessary to the very survval of the new government (Cuoco, 1980). In any case, the true defeat of the Republc stemmed from the lack of a process of osmoss between the patrots on the one hand and the bourgeose and the common people on the other, the latter turnng out to be lttle nclned to accord the trust descrbed by Flanger. Where the Englsh Parlament succeeded n ncorporatng n ts reforms the common needs of the naton, the democratc message of the Neapoltan patrots met steadfast opposton. The passvty of the 17

19 bourgeose was second only to the outrght hostlty of the lower classes towards democracy. The common people were dffdent towards the patrotc movement for the entre perod of the French occupaton. Despte a seres of attempts to awaken popular nterest n the cause of democracy, the foregn source of the poltcal upheavals and the brthplace of patrotsm n the arstocratc salons made t mpossble to get the Neapoltan republcan movement n harmony wth the real needs of the lower classes, so all offers of class collaboraton proved untenable (Cuoco, 1980). Feelng betrayed by ther fellow ctzens, the people demonstrated ther hostlty to the new government and openly dsplayed ther fath n Ferdnand and Mara Carolna, the recognzed symbols of ther roots and relgon (Croce, 1912). Ths atmosphere, together wth the shortage of food caused by the royalst embargo and the growng dscontent provoked by the vexatons of French customs dutes (worse even than those suffered under the monarchy) could not but trgger nsurrecton and revolt, whch broke out mmedately upon the French retreat from Bourbon terrtory. When the French troops departed, leavng Naples and the provnces to the feeble local republcan forces, the true extent of the weakness of the patrots and the Republc became glarngly evdent. The patrots had been unable to deal constructvely wth nternal problems wthout the support of the nvaders, whle the Republc, wth no army, was defenseless n the face of the mmnent Bourbon counteroffensve (Cuoco, 1980). On 21 June the republcans mpotently watched the re-entry nto Naples of the Bourbon army under the command of Fabrzo Dong Ruffo ( ). They agreed to surrender n exchange for ther lves. Shortly after ther return, however, the monarchs dshonored the pacts sgned by Ruffo and ntated a seres of trals and executons of all those who, actvely or not, had taken part n the democratc nterlude. In vew of the large number of prsoners gven over to the executoners, Ferdnand IV and Mara Carolna of Austra have been counted among the cruelest tyrants n the hstory of Naples. Ths, then, was the dramatc concluson to a hstorcal perod n whch reform of the nsttutons mpedng the progress of the Mezzogorno had seemed possble. The Neapoltan Enlghtenment, whch had nothng to envy the Mlanese school n terms of ntellectual excellence or nternatonal mpact (V. Zamagn, 2017), was brutally extrpated, leavng the promse of cvl, economc and poltcal progress unfulflled. Ths s the sprt n whch Vera Zamagn (2017) condemns the Bourbon dynasty, whch proved ncapable of seeng the need to enact reforms and support them wth the naton s best human resources especally after 1799, when n the North of Italy, unlke Naples, the local ntellectual elte, despte the changed poltcal scene, managed to hold mportant publc postons. The Bourbons reganed control over ther domans, holdng on to power for another 62 years wthout ever sustanng any polcy capable of fosterng the welfare of the naton. 18