Is social capital long lasting? Does it affect long term economic performance? To answer these questions we test Putnam’s conjecture that today marked differences in social capital between the North and South of Italy were due to the culture of independence fostered by the free city-states experience in the North of Italy at the turn of the first millennium. We show that the medieval experience of independence has an impact on social capital within the North, even when we instrument for the probability of becoming a city-state with historical factors (such as the Etruscan origin of the city and the presence of a bishop in year 1,000). More importantly, we show that the difference in social capital among towns that in the Middle Ages had the characteristics to become independent and towns that did not exists only in the North (where most of these towns became independent) and not in the South (where the power of the Norman kingdom prevented them from doing so). Our difference in difference estimates suggest that at least 50% of the North-South gap in social capital is due to the lack of a free city-state experience in the South.

Long-term Persistence

Is social capital long lasting? Does it affect long term economic performance? To answer these questions we test Putnam’s conjecture that today marked differences in social capital between the North and South of Italy were due to the culture of independence fostered by the free city-states experience in the North of Italy at the turn of the first millennium. We show that the medieval experience of independence has an impact on social capital within the North, even when we instrument for the probability of becoming a city-state with historical factors (such as the Etruscan origin of the city and the presence of a bishop in year 1,000). More importantly, we show that the difference in social capital among towns that in the Middle Ages had the characteristics to become independent and towns that did not exists only in the North (where most of these towns became independent) and not in the South (where the power of the Norman kingdom prevented them from doing so). Our difference in difference estimates suggest that at least 50% of the North-South gap in social capital is due to the lack of a free city-state experience in the South. JEL: O43, P16, O10

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Long Term Persistence

Starting in the mid-thirteenth century, kings, bishops, and local rulers throughout western Europe repeatedly ordered the banishment of foreigners who were lending at interest. The expulsion of these foreigners, mostly Christians hailing from northern Italy, took place against a backdrop of rising anxieties over the social and spiritual implications of a rapidly expanding credit economy. Moreover, from 1274 onward, such expulsions were backed by the weight of canon law, as the church hierarchy—inspired by secular precedents—commanded rulers everywhere to expel foreign moneylenders from their lands. Standing threats of expulsion were duly entered into statute-books from Salzburg to northern Spain. This dissertation explores the emergence and spread of the idea of expelling foreign usurers across the intellectual and legal landscape of late medieval Europe. Building on a wide array of evidence gathered from seventy archives and libraries, the dissertation examines how the idea of expulsion expressed itself in practice, how its targets came to be defined, and how the resulting expulsion orders were enforced—or not. It shows how administrative procedures, intellectual categories and linguistic habits circulated and evolved to shape the banishment not only of foreign usurers, but of other targets as well, most notably the Jews. By reconstructing these expulsions and their accompanying legal and theological debates, this dissertation weaves together broad themes ranging from the circulation of merchants and manuscripts to conflicting overlaps in political jurisdictions and commercial practices; from the resilience of Biblical exegesis to the flexibility of legal hermeneutics; and from shifts in political

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Banishing Usury: The Expulsion of Foreign Moneylenders in Medieval Europe, 1200-1450

It is argued in this paper that the development of accounting and accountability practices within the Society of Jesus from the 16th to the 17th centuries cannot be reduced to an economic explanation that views them merely as tools for measuring and allocating economic resources thereby explaining the formation of hierarchies. Rather, their development and refinement were tightly linked to the absolutist ideology of the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Counter-Reformation, conceived of here as a complex work of compromise among theological, religious, political, institutional, and social instances, of which the hierarchical structure of the Order and its accounting records were only the visible traces.

Accounting for God: accounting and accountability practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, XVI-XVII centuries)

This is the first truly global study of the Society of Jesus's early missions. Up to now historians have treated the early-modern Catholic missionary project as a disjointed collection of regional missions rather than as a single world-encompassing example of religious globalization. Luke Clossey shows how the vast distances separating missions led to logistical problems of transportation and communication incompatible with traditional views of the Society as a tightly centralized military machine. In fact, connections unmediated by Rome sprung up between the missions throughout the seventeenth century. He follows trails of personnel, money, relics and information between missions in seventeenth-century China, Germany and Mexico, and explores how Jesuits understood space and time and visualized universal mission and salvation. This pioneering study demonstrates that a global perspective is essential to understanding the Jesuits and will be required reading for historians of Catholicism and the early-modern world.

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Salvation and Globalization in the Early Jesuit Missions

A survey of the papal monarchy in early modern Europe, concentrating on the relationship between spiritual and temporal authority during the emergence of the papal state, which the author sees as the "prototype" of the contemporary sovereign state.

The papal prince : one body and two souls : the papal monarchy in early modern Europe

Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto scaricare gratis, Una storia della giustizia. Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto epub italiano, Una storia della giustizia. Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto torrent, Una storia della giustizia. Dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto leggere online gratis PDF

Paolo Prodi

Papers

The papal prince : one body and two souls : the papal monarchy in early modern Europe

Una storia della giustizia : dal pluralismo dei fori al moderno dualismo tra coscienza e diritto

Il sovrano pontefice : un corpo e due anime, la monarchia papale nella prima età moderna

Disciplina dell'anima, disciplina del corpo e disciplina della società tra medioevo ed età moderna

Il sacramento del potere : il giuramento politico nella storia costituzionale dell'Occidente