migration, diaspora, ethnicity

The Historical Society’s 2008 Conference
MIGRATION, DIASPORA, ETHNICITY, AND
NATIONALISM IN HISTORY
Baltimore, MD June 5-8, 2008
« French » immigrants
in Naples (1806-1860)
Marco Rovinello
University of Calabria (Italy)
1. From migrants…
In the dense network of French diplomatic delegations all over Europe and
Mediterranean ports Naples represents since the end of the Sixteenth century a steady
point: In the capital of Neapolitan Kingdom there are both an Embassy and a Consul,
appointed by the king of France in order to take care the interests of his countrymen1.
Besides the presence of French people in Naples is largely attested since the Middle Age
and during all the early modern age, though it is very difficult to precisely state how many
people come from France to Naples in this period, both because of the lack of sources and
the problems concerning the meaning itself of a national identification in the ancient
régime.
Some years ago, studying French merchants in the eighteenth century Naples,
Ruggiero Romano argued that the colonie française was composed by just 20-25 people,
mostly because of the discriminations they had to suffer by Austrian administration
between 1713 and 1734 and the consequences of the War of Polish Succession (1733-1738)2.
However, most recent studies have shown that such a little group represents neither
the entire French business community working in Bourbon Naples nor the whole French
presence in Southern Italy. Hundreds of French families live in the Kingdom capital
already in the middle of the seventieth century and some others get to Naples since the
beginning of the next century. These 4.000 French people settled between 1800 and 1860
make Naples one of the most important destination of French emigration in the
Mediterranean area3 together with Cadix4, the cosmopolite and “infidèle” Smyrna5, the
Maghreb6, and Leghorn, which is considered by contemporaries as a “Levant rapproché”7.
J. Baillou, C. Lucet e J. Vimont, Les affaires étrangères et le corps diplomatique français Paris, Editions du CNRS,
1984; Archives Nationales de France, Fonds des Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance consulaire, Naples, vol. 867903.
2 R. Romano, Il commercio franco-napoletano nel secolo XVIII, in R. Romano (a cura di), Napoli dal Viceregno al
Regno, Torino, Einaudi, 1976, pp. 67-122.
3 Some studies about French migration to America are : G. Rodríguez Alcalá e L. Capdevila, Une colonie
française au Paraguay, la Nouvelle-Bordeaux, Paris, L'Harmattan, 2005; A. E. Lemmon, La Louisiane: de la colonie
française à l'état américain, Paris, Somogy, 2003; F. Blancpain, La colonie française de Saint-Domingue: de
l'esclavage à l'indépendance, Paris, Karthala, 2004.
4 D. Ozanam, La colonie française de Cadix au XVIIIe siècle, d'après un document inedit (1777) in "Mèlanges de la
Casa de Velasquez", 1968, pp. 259-348.
5 M. C. Smyrnelis, Smyrne, la ville oublié? 1830-1930, Paris, Autrement, 2006; M. C. Smyrnelis, Jeux d'identité à
Smyrne au XVIIIe et au XIXe siècles, in H. Le Bras (a cura di), L'invention de populations. Biologie, idéologie et
1
2
Therefore, the French invasion in 1806 and the foundation in the continental Southern
Italy of a ten years long filo-Napoleonic regime could actually strengthen the colony both
in the capital and in other towns of the Kingdom but the Decennio8 is – as John Davis
argues – neither the starting point nor the most relevant cause of a new era in the
foreigners’ presence in the Mezzogiorno.
According to different sources (consular statistics, Neapolitan police records, and
marriage certificates), a large number of the French subjects arrive in Naples before Joseph
Bonaparte comes to the throne and even more move to Southern Italy in the Restoration
era (Fig. 1)9.
Arrivi a Napoli e matrimoni riportati nei registri di polizia, consolato e stato civile
10000
1000
100
10
Consolato
Polizia
18
60
18
57
18
54
18
51
18
48
18
45
18
42
18
39
18
36
18
33
18
30
18
27
18
24
18
21
18
18
18
15
18
12
18
09
18
06
18
03
18
00
1
Matrimoni
Fig. 1
politique, Paris, Odile Jacob, 2000, pp. 125-139; M. C. Smyrnelis, Les Européens et leur implantation dans l'espace
urbain de Smyrne (1750-1850), in J. Bottin e D. Calabi (a cura di), Les étrangers dans la ville. Minorités et espace
urbain du bas Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne, Paris, Maison de Sciences de l'Homme, 1999, pp. 65-75; C.
Carrière e altri, Informatique et histoire: étude de la dynamique des migrations et des implantations commerciales
françaises dans l'Empire Ottoman (1685-1835), in A. Nouschi (a cura di), Les migrations dans les pays
méditerranéens au XVIIIeme et au début du XIXeme, Nice, 1974, pp. 56-79; H. Georgelin, La fin de Smyrne, Paris,
CNRS Editions, 2005.
6 C. Windler, La diplomatie comme expérience de l'autre: consuls français au Maghreb (1700 - 1840), Genève,
Librairie Droz, 2002.
7 L. Dermigny, Escales, échelles et ports francs au Moyen Age et aux temps modernes in Société Jean Bodin pour
l'histoire comparative des institutions (a cura di), Les grandes escales, vol. III, Bruxelles, Editions de la
Librairie encyclopédique, 1974, p. 154 citato in J. P. Filippini, La Nazione francese di Livorno (fine XVII - fine
XVIII secolo), in J. P. Filippini (a cura di), Il porto di Livorno e la Toscana (1676-1814), vol. II, Napoli, ESI, 1998,
vol. II, pp. 399-414, p. 399. Some information about the French colony in Tuscany are also in D. G. Lo Romer,
Merchants and Reform in Livorno. 1814-1868, Berkeley, University of California, 1987.
8 The Italian historiography calls Decennio the French occupation in Southern Italy between 1806 and 1815.
9 Consulat Général de France à Naples (CGFN), Registres d’immatriculation des français à Naples, vol. 1-3 and
Archivio di Stato di Napoli (ASN), Prefettura di Polizia, Movimento stranieri, ff. 2849-2867.
3
Of course, some of those coming in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies after 1815 have
already been in Naples before10, following to the pattern of multiple migrations as
described by Bruno Ramirez11. Some others, whose geographical mobility in the Euromediterranean area is actually surprising, consider Naples as just a leg in their wandering
around port by port, town by town. In several cases, this behaviour is so constant that it
looks like a diaspora12 like the Greek and Swiss ones13
As other well-known diaspora-people, they settle in a place (in this case the
Mezzogiorno) sometimes for long years, but they do not hesitate to migrate again if this
choice seems to be profitable and even to come back to Naples, making their migration
“even if definitive, never like as a migration de rupture”14.
For instance, when Victor Auvillain (Fig. 2) comes to Naples from St. Cyr (a small
town in the department of Seine et Oise) during the Decennio, he is the Earl de Grasset’s
portier.
In January 1815, in a church in the centre of Naples, he marries Maria Antonia
Corrado, who is from Salerno15. However, some months later the Napoleonic regime of
Murat falls and they escape the Bourbon’s anti-French reprisal by moving to Florence.
Here – on 3rd April 1816 - is born their first son: Ernest16.
M. Rovinello e R. Zaugg, I francesi a Napoli tra Sette e Ottocento. Profili sociali e percorsi migratori, in A. Arru,
D. L. Cagliotie altri (a cura di), Denaro, credito e lavoro. Migrazioni nazionali e internazionali di uomini e donne in
Italia tra Settecento e Novecento, Roma, Donzelli, forthcoming.
11 B. Ramirez e Y. Otis, Crossing the 49th Parallel. Migration from Canada to United States, 1900-1930, IthacaLondon, Cornell University Press, 2001.
12 The category of “diaspora” has been largely studied both by sociologists and historians. Some examples
are W. Safran, Comparing Diasporas: A Review Essay in "Diaspora", 1999, pp. 255-291; H. H. Blalock, Toward a
Theory of Minority-Group Relations, New York, Wiley, 1967; J. Armstrong, Mobilized and Proletarian Diaspora in
"American Political Science Review", 70, 1976, pp. 393-408.
13 About the Greek diaspora see T. Catsiyannis, The Greek Community in London, London, 1993; R. Clogg, The
Greek Diaspora in the Twentieth Century Houndmills - London, Macmillan, 1999. About the Swiss one see G.
Arlettaz, Emigration et colonisation suisses en Amérique 1815-1918 in "Studien und Quellen/Etudes et
Source/Studi e Fonti", 5, 1979, pp. 7-236; G. Arlettaz, Une nouvelle Suisse à la Plata? (1857-1914) in
"Schweizerische Zeitschrif für Geschichte/Revue Suisse d'Histoire", 29, 1979, pp. 330-355; G. BallmerTschudin, Die schweizer Auswanderung nach Russland von Peter dem Grossen bis zur Oktoberrevolution in
"Itinera", 1992, pp. 47-58; T. David, La colonie suisse de Constantinople (1850-1918), in M. Anastassiadou e B.
Heyberger (a cura di), Figures anonymes, figures d'élite: pour une anatomie de l'Homo ottomanicus, Istambul, Isis,
1999, pp. 177-212.
14 A. Carrino, I flussi migratori: strategie individuali e di gruppo, in F. Tateo (a cura di), Storia di Bari, IV, RomaBari, Laterza, 1994, IV, pp. 45-92, p. 55. About the concepts of « migration de rupture » and « migration de
maintien » see P. A. Rosental, Maintien/Rupture: un nouveau couple pour l'analyse des migrations in "Annales
ESC", 1990, pp. 1403-1431.
15 ASN, Atti di stato civile, S. Ferdinando, Matrimoni, v. 141.
16 CGFN, Registres d’immatriculation des français à Naples, vol. 2.
10
4
Family Auvillain’s multiple migration
(St. Cyr – Naples – Florence - Naples)
Fig. 2
Some years later, in the summer 1821, the Auvillains have a second son: Charles
Pierre Antoine Michel17. He comes into the world not in Florence but in Naples, where in
the meantime his parents have moved. Victor works as salesclerk in an important French
commercial firm and his wife – as usual in this period – takes care of their children. This
time Victor’s stay in the Kingdom is actually definitive. In fact, before dying of old age in
184418, he can welcome into the family the young girl from Caserta that Ernest marries in
1843 and their son, Vittorio Vincenzo Alfonso Pasquale, born in Naples eleven months
later.
The complexity and also the extraordinary variety of their migration patterns make
very difficult to reconstruct the runs French migrants have made before getting to the
17
18
Ibid.
Ibid.
5
Mezzogiorno. When sources throw light on them, their migration project is mostly
atomistic, extremely “segmented” and very often pluri-generational19.
Most of French - regardless of their social rank - move to Naples alone, implicitly
confirming the predominance of work migrations. Others come to the Mezzogiorno with
their wives and sometimes with children. Anyway, in both cases French do not exploit the
previous presence of countrymen in order to make easier their arrival and settlement in
the host country. When they land in the Naples seaport, most of them have no relative
there. No link is evident among people coming from the same areas or villages, also
because it is rare to find people coming from the same places in a short period (10-15
years)20.
Perhaps they have been able to get some information from countrymen settled in
Naples before moving from France. However, they obtain no help from them when they
arrive in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies: no hospitality, no subsidy, no help in finding job in
their own shops or firms. While Swiss and British migrants find a strong helping hand in
their own national and religious communities, French do not. Moving to Naples is a lone
adventure for them.
Much more common among foreign migrants is another aspect of their migration. In
the actual experiences of several French migrants conceptual dichotomies as internal
migration/international migration and mobilité de longue distance/micro-mobilité21 lose any
significance. Many people start moving to a near village/town and, through successive
relocations (often made by more than a single generation), they finally get to a bigger city
(not necessarily a metropolis like Paris or Marseilles). From there they leave directly to
Naples (as in the case of Beranger family22) or to other Italian cities (Turin, Florence,
Leghorn, Rome, and Milan) as a further middle leg. In these places, sometimes more
P. A. Rosental, Les sentiers invisibles. Espace, familles et migrations dans la France du 19e siècle, Paris, EHESS,
1999.
20 The data are somewhat different for biggest cities like Paris, Marseilles, and Lyon. However, it is obvious
that people moving form such big cities had much less chances of getting in touch before leaving France and
planning their migration exploiting previous contacts with countrymen already in the Mezzogiorno.
21 About the category of micro-mobilité see J. P. Poussou, Mobilité et migration, in J. Dupâquier (a cura di),
Histoire de la population française, vol. 2, Paris, PUF, 1988, vol. 2, pp. 99-143. Some critical studies about the use
of this category in classifying migrations are J. Bourdieu e altri, Migrations et transmissions intergénérationnelles
dans la France du XIXe siècle et du debut du XXe siècle in "Annales HSS", 2000, pp. 749-786 and P. A. Rosental, La
migration des femmes (et des hommes) en France au XIXe siècle in "Annales de Démographie Historique", 2004,
pp. 107-135.
22 Rovinello e Zaugg, I francesi... cit.
19
6
familiar and culturally closer than Naples for French natives23, migrants stay for different
periods (from some months to decades). Here they can probably collect material and
immaterial resources (mostly human and social capital) which will turn out very useful
when these people (mostly merchants) settle in Naples24.
However, such an articulated migration pattern is not a prerogative of a restricted
merchant-elite. Among people moving to Southern Italy through several steps there are
street vendors and small boutiquiers as well as craftsmen, teachers, civil servants, and
households25.
In fact, our sources enable us to analyze the “whole” French migration to Naples26,
not just a limited socio-professional group (elites, merchants, entrepreneurs, etc.) as other
studies have done until now, mostly in order to weigh up the role played by foreigners in
such a backward economic system27.
It is actually very difficult to state the socio-professional status of French moving to
Naples during the period under examination. Interpretive problems connected to the
reliability of auto and etero-definitions provided by authorities and immigrants as they
appear in the sources used for this research28, and the extreme flexibility of migrants in
About the concept of « cultural distance » and its relevance in studying migrants’ behaviours and
strategies see A. Arru, F. Ramella e J. Ehmer, Premessa in "Quaderni Storici", 106, 2001, pp. 3-23.
24 Some examples are in M. Rovinello, I "francesi" nella Napoli dell'Ottocento, dottorato (XVIII ciclo) (rel. B.
Salvemini e J. Boutier), Università degli Studi di Bari - EHESS de Marseille, a.a. 2006-2007.
25 ASN, Prefettura di Polizia, Movimento stranieri, f. 2846.
26 Similar researches have been done about Swiss migrants to the post-Restoration Mezzogiorno and English
living in the early nineteenth century Sicily M. Rovinello, “Gente meccaniche” e identità nazionale. Artigiani,
garzoni, militari e domestici svizzeri nella Napoli ottocentesca in "Quaderni Storici", 121, 2006, pp. 255-287; M.
D'Angelo, Inglesi in Sicilia nell'Ottocento in "Archivi e Imprese", 17, 1998, pp. 5-32.
27 D. L. Caglioti, Vite parallele. Una minoranza protestante nell'Italia dell'Ottocento, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006; D.
L. Caglioti, Élites in movimento: l'emigrazione svizzero-tedesca a Napoli nell'Ottocento, in A. Arru e F. Ramella (a
cura di), L'Italia delle migrazioni interne. Donne, uomini, mobilità in età moderna e contemporanea, Roma, Donzelli,
2003, pp. 207-226; D. L. Caglioti, Imprenditori evangelici nel Mezzogiorno dell'Ottocento in "Archivi e Imprese",
16, 1997, pp. 245-281; M. D'Angelo, Comunità straniere a Messina tra XVIII e XIX secolo, Messina, Perna
edizioni, 1995; B. Dawes, British merchants in Naples, 1820-1880, Napoli, ESI, 1991; L. Rubini, Fiabe e mercanti in
Sicilia. La raccolta di Laura Gonzenbach. La comunità di lingua tedesca a Messina nell'800, Firenze, Leo S. Olschki
Editore, 1998; L. Zichichi, Il colonialismo felpato. Gli svizzeri alla conquista del Regno delle Due Sicilie (1800-1848),
Palermo, Sellerio, 1988.
28 Problems linked to the classification of profession in the past have been largely discussed both by
historians and sociologists. See at least M. Gribaudi e A. Blum, Des catégories aux liens individuels: l'analyse
statistique de l'espace social in "Annales ESC", 46, 1990, pp. 1365-1402; S. R. S. Szretzer, The Genesis of the
Registrar-General's Social Classification of Occupations in "The British Journal of Sociology", 35, 1986, pp. 522546; W. H. Sewell, Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century European City: Some Findings and Implications in
"Journal of Interdisciplinary History", 1976, pp. 217-233; W. H. Sewell, Structure and Mobility. The men and
women of Marseille, 1820-1870, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985; G. Bouchard, Tous les métiers du
monde. Le traitement des données professionnelles en histoire sociale, Quebec, Les Presses de l'Université Laval,
1996.
23
7
collocating themselves in the Neapolitan labour market, call for great prudence in
classifying their occupations and socio-economic status.
However, it is possible to affirm that the French colony in the Bourbon Naples is
characterized by a considerable socio-economic heterogeneity.
Together
Composizione professionale dei
francesi ignoti al Consolato (%)
5,5
8,9
with
a
restricted
minority
composed by few hundreds of négociants,
5,5
fabricants and proprietaires who can be
7,2
27,6
considered as protagonists of an elitemigration29, a large number of French
15,4
14,3
Addetti al negozio
Uomini di lettere
Proprietari
Liberi professionisti
Senza professione/Non indicata
4,2
moving to Naples belong to inferior social
11,4
ranks and come to the Mezzogiorno within
Domestici
Militari e ex miliatari
Donne
Impiegati pubblici
a subsistence or betterment migration30
(Fig. 3).
They Actually do not significantly differ
Fig. 3
from their “advantaged”31 countrymen in the timing of their arrivals, migration pattern,
place of birth, and sometimes even not even in material capital. Both elite members and
common people get to the Neapolitan kingdom mostly after Murat falls32 and move
mostly in an atomistic way, which is very far from the cooptation phenomena registered
within other national elites in the nineteenth century Mezzogiorno33 and also very
different from the migration chains which characterize the French emigration to
America34.
Even if among elite members there is a slight overrepresentation of people from
Mediterranean coast (Tab. 1 and 2), the geographical origins cannot be considered a
According to K. J. Bade elite-migration are “the spatial mobility of entrepreneurs, merchants and skilled
people, the interregional or transnational extension of factories, and the capital movements which increase
the work and profits opportunities in the area of destination”. K. J. Bade, L'Europa in movimento. Le migrazioni
dal Settecento a oggi, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2001, p. 129.
30 Ibid., p. 4.
31 Caglioti, Élites in movimento... cit., p. 207.
32 Analysing the arrival trend of French merchants and entrepreneurs it is evident that most of them get to
the Mezzogiorno after 1815. In fact, the average number of arrivals raises from about 10 in the period
between 1807 and 1815 to more than 16 in the period between 1816 and 1825. CGFN, Registres
d’immatriculation des français à Naples, vol. 1-3.
33 Dawes, British merchants... cit.; Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit., pp. 51-55.
34 Blancpain, La colonie française... cit.; J. Lamarre, The French Canadians of Michigan: their contribution to the
development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840-1914, Detroit, Wayne State University
Press, 2003; Lemmon, La Louisiane... cit.; Rodríguez Alcalá e Capdevila, Une colonie... cit.
29
8
significant element of distinction between middle and upper classes coming to the
Southern Italy.
Seine
270
Place of
birth
Paris
262
Migrants to Naples/total
hinabitants (1836) x 10.000
2,88
Bouches du Rhône
250
Marseille
197
13,49
Rhône
113
Lyon
92
6,09
Corse
73
Grenoble
30
10,34
Var
68
Nîmes
28
6,51
Isère
67
Aix
25
10,00
Hérault
54
Bordeaux
24
2,42
Gard
50
Toulon
20
5,71
Seine et Oise
39
Toulouse
20
2,59
Haut Rhin
33
Others
1.394
-
Department
Others
Migrants
Migrants
1171
Tab. 2
Tab. 1
This closeness to the elite is sometimes strengthened by the lack of precise
information: There is no balance sheet of their firms and we have no idea about the
earnings of these people. Therefore, it is very problematic to sharply divide people having
some capital and currying on an unpretentious commercial or entrepreneurial activity
from the firms belonging to the most relevant French businessmen in the kingdom.
However, even if someone of them has some money to invest in the host country,
what they lack is actually the social capital35, the international network and the wideness
of business activity which characterize the most important French firms working in
Naples, and enables us to distinguish them from “boutiquiers et autres marchands
«détailleurs» […], classés avec les boutiquiers alors que d’autres figurent avec les petites
gens”36.
About the idea of “Social capital” see at least A. Portes, Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern
Sociology in "Annual Review of Sociology", 24, 1998, pp. 1-24; R. D. Putnam, Capitale sociale e individualismo.
Crisi e rinascita della cultura civica in America, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004; P. Bourdieu, Le capital social in "Actes
de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales", 31, 1980, pp. 2-3; J. S. Coleman, Social Capital in the Creation of Human
Capital in "American Journal of Sociology", 94, 1988, pp. S95-S120.
36 Ozanam, La colonie française... cit., pp. 265-266.
35
9
This socially composite group of about 4.000 people leaving their homeland mostly
after the Revolution and often travelling around all over Europe contributes to enlarge
over time the French presence in the Mezzogiorno. With this minority - a national
minority - the second part of this contribute will actually deal.
Focusing briefly on the economic activities, social behaviour, and networks (both in
France and in the Bourbon kingdom) of the French colony members and underlining how
they integrate into the local society and labour market in comparison with other national,
religious, and ethnic minorities living in Southern Italy, I intend to explain the reason why,
at least in speaking of this national minority, the word “French” should be always placed
in inverted commas.
2. …to minority
2.1 Merchant and entrepreneurs: French elite in Naples
For skilled people wishing to “better themselves in material respects”37 the
nineteenth century Naples offers ideal conditions: it is one of the largest consumer markets
in Europe, it has a very active port38, its government needs very often loans from foreign
bankers in order to bear the considerable costs of the Bourbon court and Austrian military
occupation after 1821, and it offers an immense reservoir of low-wage workforce available
within a market where they actually face no competition by an almost inexistent local
entrepreneur class.
Both French merchant and entrepreneurs39 are surely attracted by all these elements.
Together with Swiss textile entrepreneurs settled in Salerno (Wenner, Aselmeyer, Egg,
etc.) and bankers working in the capital (Appelt, Meuricoffre, etc.), British merchant-
E. G. Ravenstein, The Laws of Migration in "Journal of the Royal Statistical Society", 52, 1889, pp. 241-301, p.
286.
38 P. Frascani, Strutture e traffici del porto di Napoli, 1860-1960 in "Memoria e ricerca", 11, 2002, pp. 41-62.
39 Even if the distinction between production and commercialisation in the Nineteenth-century firms is often
very fine, those members of the elite of French origin, who manage or own an industrial plant based in the
Neapolitan area can be considered “entrepreneurs” while people trading goods from/to the Mezzogiorno
without proven interests in manufacturing them are considered “merchants”. Though the selection is
arbitrary, this choice does allow us to study of a group of people, presumably homogeneous, due to their
social-economic status, background and shared interests, as well as to compare the behaviour and the
choices of these with other groups of foreign entrepreneurs already the subject of study over the last ten
years.
37
10
bankers (William Turner and James Close), and the local branch of the Rothschild bank40,
they greatly contribute to create the post-Revolution Neapolitan commercial elite, which
was “largely composed by foreigners” 41 as remarked by John Davis.
While French maisons and captains mostly managed the intensive dealings between
the Mezzogiorno and Marseilles in the middle of eighteenth century42, members of the
French colony excel in several sectors of the nineteenth century Neapolitan economy:
Degas43 and Duchaliot families, Charles Forquet44 and some others are at the top of
financial market. Charles Antoine Beranger, Joseph Cartoux, and Joseph Tesseire are key
figures of the industrialization process of the Kingdom45. Maurice Dupont, Pierre and
Victoire Cardon, Benoît Antoine Desarnaud, Henry Le Riche and dozens of other French
important merchants carry on their international business by going everyday to the
Naples seaport and to the Stock Exchange in order to buy and sell their products.
To make their migration to Naples a “success story”46 most of French businessmen
adopt a strategy very different from those of colleagues from other countries. While Swiss
and British show a “very strong sense of identity and of belonging to a self-contained and
distinct community which had no interest at all in local integration”47 according to a
About Neapolitan branch of the Rothschild bank see M. Rovinello, Un grande banchiere in una piccola piazza:
Carl Mayer Rothschild e il credito commerciale nel Regno delle Due Sicilie in "Società e Storia", 110, 2005, pp. 705739 and M. Rovinello, Prestare non è perdere. Correntisti e debitori della casa Rothschild di Napoli (1821-1855), in
corso di pubblicazione in “Annali dell'Istituto Italiano di Studi Storici”, XXII, forthcoming
41 J. A. Davis, Società e imprenditori nel Regno Borbonico (1815-1860), Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1979, p. 30.
42 About commercial relationships between Neapolitan kingdom and France in the eighteenth century see. B.
Salvemini e A. Carrino, Il territorio flessibile. Flussi mercantili e spazi meridionali nel Settecento e nel primo
Ottocento, in G. Giarrizzo e E. Iachello (a cura di), Le mappe della storia: proposte per una cartografia del
Mezzogiorno e della Sicilia in età moderna, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2002, pp. 99-139; B. Salvemini e M. A.
Visceglia, Marsiglia e il Mezzogiorno d'Italia (1710-1846). Flussi commerciali e complementarietà economiche. Parte
prima in "Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome. Italie et Méditerranée", 1991, pp. 103-163; B. Salvemini e M.
A. Visceglia, Pour une histoire des rapports économiques entre Marseille et le Sud de l'Italie au XVIIIe et au début du
XIX siècle. Flux marchands, articulations territoriales, choix politiques in "Provence Historique", 177, 1994, pp.
321-365; B. Salvemini e A. Carrino, Porti di campagna, porti di città. Traffici e insediamenti del Regno di Napoli
visti da Marsiglia (1710-1846) in "Quaderni Storici", 121, 2006, pp. 209-254, and Romano, Il commercio franconapoletano... cit., pp. 110-111.
43 R. Raimondi, Degas e la sua famiglia in Napoli 1793-1917, Napoli, SAV, 1958.
44 Davis, Società e imprenditori... cit., p. 42
45 A. Dell'Orefice, L'industria della carta nel Mezzogiorno d'Italia 1800-1870, Genève, Librairie Droz, 1979; S. de
Majo, L'industria protetta. Lanifici e cotonifici in Campania nell'Ottocento, Napoli, Athena, 1989.
46 R. Alba e V. Nee, Rethinking Assimilation Theory for New Era of Immigration in "International Migration
Review", 31, 1997, pp. 826-874, p. 833.
47 Dawes, British merchants... cit., p. 106.
40
11
clearly “ethnocentric” behavioural model48 both in the private sphere and in the personal
one, French do not.
They are Catholics in a country with a large Catholic majority. They share a much
closer cultural affinity towards the locals in comparison with other foreigners coming from
Northern Europe and speaking German or English49. They actually hold themselves far
removed from the customs and mental attitudes of their humbler fellow countrymen as
are the local or foreign merchants, with whom they could at least share “a similar cultural
and professional formation”50.
Therefore, their behaviour is much less influenced by locals’ mistrust towards nonCatholic foreigners51 and it can be mostly dictated by the particular resources (material
and above all immaterial) at their disposal. They do not use either the social capital
associated with the membership of a national or religious community (i.e. the British
colony leaded by British consul at the Bourbon court or the German-French Evangelical
Society founded in Naples in 1826), nor the advantages in transaction costs and in
collecting information coming from an “ethnic economy”52. French merchants and
entrepreneurs do not colonize a specific sector of industrial production/trading and
actually do not refuse a priori a strong cooperation with Neapolitans as partners both in
financing and managing firms.
Most of those who come to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies to become successful
entrepreneurs/merchant do not possess everything they need to set up an enterprise and
make it competitive. Therefore, instead of setting up firms only with countrymen or acting
J. G. Kellas, Nazionalismi ed etnie, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1993; V. Reynolds, V. S. E. Falger e I. Vine, The
Sociobiology of Ethnocentrism. Evolutionary Dimensions of Xenophobia, Discrimination, Racism and Nationalism,
London, Croom Helm, 1986.
49 Arru, Ramella e Ehmer, Premessa... cit.
50 D. L. Caglioti, Associazionismo e sociabilità d'élite a Napoli nel XIX secolo, Napoli, Liguori, 1996, p. 68.
51 For an example of the discriminations made by Neapolitan government against non-Catholics see A.
Mercati, Raccolta di Concordati su Materie Ecclesiastiche tra la Santa Sede e le Autorità Civili, vol. I “1098-1914”,
Roma, Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1954 Some consequences of these discriminations on the Protestant
Swiss’ behaviour are described in Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit.
52 The literature about ethnic economies is huge. Some examples are H. E. Aldrich e R. D. Waldinger,
Ethnicity and Entrepreneurship in "Annual Review of Sociology", 16, 1990, pp. 111-135; I. Light, Immigration
and Entrepreneurship: Culture, Capital and Ethnic Networks, New Brunswick (NJ), Transaction Publisher, 1993;
M. Casson e A. Godley, Cultural Factors in Economic Growth, Heidelberg-Berlin-New York, Springer, 2000.
48
12
as mere agency houses controlled from the homeland53, the French establish partnerships
mostly with Neapolitans.
Although among the immigrant entrepreneurs there are some partnerships that
remained exclusively French (i.e. Bayle & Gasquet, Bourgeat & Petit, Giuseppe Girard54)
and also few cases of individual businesses following the pattern of the small and large
eighteenth century entrepreneurial dynasties (Pascal or Frajssinet55), in the period from
1810-1834, 10 out of 14 French entrepreneurs sign agreements with local businessmen56.
This trend is even more evident among merchants: About two third of the contracts signed
by a French négociant and registered in the Neapolitan Court of Commerce between 1815
and 1860 ratify the foundation or the shutdown of a Franco-Neapolitan firm57.
Their agreements are very different in several aspects. On one hand, French
entrepreneurs bring into the Mezzogiorno their technical know how and their managerial
expertise and they mostly need just a sponsor supplying machineries, the starting capital,
and the contact within the local market (not to mention the ‘contacts’ in the local market).
On the other hand, merchants do not need much money to set up their maisons in Naples58
and, in associating with local people, they mostly look for someone who can actively
cooperate in managing current business and who posses a network which is
complementary to their own.
Anyway, in so doing, both French entrepreneurs and merchants transform
potentially competitive disadvantages such as the impossibility of doing everything on
their own and not constructing an “an economic group with strong national-linguistic-
About agency houses see G. Jones, Merchants to Multinationals. British Trading Companies in the Nineteenth
and Twentyth Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000. About British agency houses in the
Mezzogiorno see Dawes, British merchants... cit. and P. Chorley, Oil, Silk and Enlighttenment. Economic
Problems in XVIIIth century Naples, Napoli, Istituto italiano per gli studi storici, 1965.
54 ASN, Tribunale di Commercio di Napoli, Atti di Società, f. 358, fogli 125-128; f. 1888, fogli 60-61 and f. 358, fogli
54-57.
55 MAE, C.C.C., Naples, vol. 45, ff. 142-144, Rapport adressé à Monsieur le Chevalier Desjobert, Consul Général de
France par M. Gauthier, Élève, Chargé du Vice-Consulat. Among the more famous, François Henri Budillon with
his 'importante fabrique de ganterie', Bernard and Brégi, the 'papetier' Felix Dutérrail and the 'teinturier de
maroquines' Antoine Dareste.
56 ASN, Tribunale di Commercio di Napoli, Atti di Società, ff.1887-1889, 358, 515, 302. In the same period three
French entrepreneurs have links with Swiss citizens and one with a businessman from Nice.
57 ASN, Tribunale di Commercio di Napoli, Atti di Società, Registri dei verbali di trascrizione, ff. 1887-1889, 358, 515,
580, 642, 696, 758, 871, 2533 and Atti di società depositati, ff. 302 and 1884.
58 M. Rovinello, Mercanti francesi e “nazione” francese a Napoli nel primo Ottocento, in B. Salvemini (a cura di),
Piazze mercantili, mercanti e poteri sulle rotte tirreniche. I traffici marittimi tra Francia e Italia nell’età della «grande
trasformazione» (1700-1850), forthcoming.
53
13
religious connotations”59 based on their ethnic roots, in ways that reveal the possibilities
offered by a partnership with local colleagues and southern capitalists, without losing for
that reason their “strong ties”60 within the homeland.
This supranational and non-ethnocentric behaviour, based on a constant cooperation
with locals, is the typical French response to the challenges posed by the Neapolitan
market. But this is not just a cold economic strategy. In fact, the integration of French
businessmen – at the same time precondition and consequence of this professional
cooperation - is not limited to the economic sphere: Friendships and matrimonies
consolidate their relationships with local elite all over time, generation by generation.
The endogamy among French immigrants of the first generation is just 59,8%. This
datum is much lower than the Protestant Swiss’ one (76,7%)61. Moreover, it is even lower
because it includes a large number of endogamic marriages celebrated before getting to
Naples but registered in the consular lists. The second generation even strengthen this
trend: While only 22,4% of Swiss joins in marriage countrymen62, about 65% of French
immigrants’ sons gets married with non-French, mostly Neapolitans partner63.
So “Frenchness” is not an embedding factor when French elite members have to
choose their partner. On the contrary, a much important criterion of selection is the
partner’s socio-professional status. Among French merchants and entrepreneurs the social
endogamy64 is 87,8%. The 9,7% of them marries members of aristocratic families ennobling
themselves, and just a remaining 2,5% wed someone belonging to a lower rank65 (Tab. 3).
Such choices reveal a process of integration that is substantially accomplished by the
first generation immigrants and that is also confirmed by their distribution and mobility
Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit., p. 279. About the concept of “economic group” see M. Granovetter, Coase
revisited: Business Groups in the Modern Economy in “Industrial and Corporate Change”, 1995, 4 (1), pp. 93-130.
60 M. Granovetter, La forza dei legami deboli, in M. Follis (a cura di), La forza dei legami deboli e altri saggi, Napoli,
Liguori, 1988, pp. 115-144.
61 Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit., p. 152.
62 Ibid., p. 153.
63 CADN, Volume dattiloscritto riassuntivo degli atti di Stato Civile del Consolato e della Legazione francese a Napoli
per gli anni 1801-1886; ASN, Atti di Stato Civile, Napoli, neighbourhood of Chiaia, San Ferdinando, San
Giuseppe, Montecalvario and Porto.
64 With “social endogamy” I mean weddings between people belonging to the commercial/entrepreneurial
elite, both French and local.
65 CADN, Volume dattiloscritto riassuntivo degli atti di Stato Civile del Consolato e della Legazione francese a Napoli
per gli anni 1801-1886; ASN, Atti di Stato Civile, Napoli, neighbourhood of Chiaia, San Ferdinando, San
Giuseppe, Montecalvario and Porto.
59
14
all across the city (Fig. 4), without the creation of any “ethnic island” as in countries where
French cannot put themselves together with locals so quickly 66.
Socio-professional endogamy
National endogamy
Endogamy
87,8%
Endogamy
59,8%
Descendent Exogamy
2,5%
Weddings with Neapolitans
33,8%
Ascendant Exogamy
9,7%
Weddings with other foreigners
2,8%
Single/No information
3,6%
Tab. 3
However, in interacting with the host society, French businessmen do not lose (in fact
strengthen) the traditional conception of their identity based on their socio-professional
rank and therefore they construct over time a close networks of contacts which are mostly
limited to the members of local high society and business community components, both
Neapolitans and foreigners.
They are constantly invited to parties, clubs, and salons where most gentlemen and
businessmen periodically meet67. Among these influent friends they choose the witnesses
for their wedding68. Among them they always find a helping hand when they need to
appoint consiglieri di famiglia (family advisers) to oversee the affairs of widows or
orphans69.
C. Windler, La Révolution française et l'espace urbain d'une échelle du Maghreb: le cas de Tunis, in J. Bottin e D.
Calabi (a cura di), Les étrangers dans la ville. Minorités et espace urbain du bas Moyen Âge à l’époque moderne,
Paris, Maison de Sciences de l'Homme, 1999, pp. 77-86.
67 44 out of about 100 French entrepreneurs are members of a Neapolitan club. 29 are members of the
“Unione”, 7 are members of the “Filarmonica”, and others are members of the “Canottieri”, the “Nazionale”,
the “Yacht”, and the “Partenopeo”. Someone – like Ernest Lefebvre – is even member of the exclusive circle
called “Whist”, where most important Neapolitan gentlemen meet every evening playing cards, reading
newspapers, and chatting. Caglioti, Associazionismo... cit.
68 From the official records of weddings, deaths or births of French entrepreneurs or their relatives, over 34%
did not have a French signature, while about 50% have, as one of the witnesses, only a subject of the King of
France. Archivio di Stato di Napoli (ASN), Atti di Stato Civile, Napoli, neighbourhood of Chiaia, San
Ferdinando, San Giuseppe, Montecalvario and Porto.
69 Examining 48 meetings called to deal with minors or widows of French nationality between 1806 and 1860,
24.6% are without one Frenchman, 49.1% have a maximum of 2, and 18.8% have between 3 or more, and
finally 7.5% have a French majority. Overall, the members of non-French nationality are 54.5%, of which
about half are Neapolitans. ASN, Preture circondariali, neighbourhood of Chiaia, San Ferdinando, San
Giuseppe, Montecalvario and Porto.
66
15
Fig. 4
Regardless of the differences in national identity and sometimes in faith, these people
form a very close circle, whose nature is largely corporative and not ethnic or national as
well as in the eighteenth and seventeenth century Nationes70.
Even in the middle of the nineteenth century the Nation française, which gather round
the Consul after the expulsion of 179871, looks much more like the merchant group
described in several ancient regime Neapolitan accounts than the “miniature homeland”
as it should be according to both the Revolution principles and the instructions coming
from Paris to French diplomats all around Europe72.
Filippini, La Nazione... cit. and Ozanam, La colonie française... cit.
R. Zaugg, Guerra, rivoluzione, xenofobia. L’espulsione dei francesi dal Regno di Napoli in F. Salvatori (a cura di),
Il Mediterraneo delle città, forthcoming
72 Baillou, Lucet e Vimont, Les affaires... .
70
71
16
About 63% of people regularly registered in consular matriculation lists between 1806
and 1860 are members of the business elite: merchants, bankers, entrepreneurs (Fig. 5).
Most of them own or manage important firms and maisons in the capital. Someone makes
business both in Naples and in other towns of the kingdom, and most of humble people
registered are in the lists because of their personal or professional relationships with their
more influent countrymen (they are their households, private teachers of their sons, etc.).
Such a corporative idea of Nation and its elite sociality are largely backed by the
French consul in Naples.
All these people - Neapolitans, Swiss,
Composizione professionale dei
francesi iscritti al Consolato
British, Austrian, etc. – are regularly invited
to
official
celebrations
and
parties
5% 5%
organized by French diplomats to celebrate
4%
3%
3%
5%
the King’s birthday or any public national
holiday73, theoretically reserved to French
subjects.
Swiss,
German,
and
5%
7%
even
Addetti al negozio
Militari e ex miliatari
Impiegati pubblici
Domestici
Cuochi
Neapolitan business community members
do not just take part in French colony’s
events.
63%
Proprietari
Altre
Liberi professionisti
Uomini di lettere
Fig. 5
Most of them live the everyday life of the community too: They sometimes marry
French people in the Consul’s office (which is not allowed) and register their marriages in
the consular registry office as they were French in every respect74. French community’s
lawyers do frequently support their interests and suits against colleagues and Neapolitan
authorities75. The consul himself issues sometimes them certificates and even passports to
leave the kingdom76.
In the list of individus notables who are regularly invited to the parties organized by French Consulate there
are several Protestants members of the German-French Evangelical Society, both French (Perret, Barendson,
Im Thurn) and Swiss (Meuricoffre, Viollier, Bourguignon, Falconnet, etc.). Among people invited to these
events there are also some influent Neapolitan businessmen (Giusto, Sorvillo, Volpicelli) and foeigners
(Rogers, Carl Mayer Rothschild, Routh, Vallin, Turner, etc.). CADN, Postes diplomatiques et consulaires, Naples,
Legation, vol. 49.
74 MAE, C.C.C., Naples, vol. 54, f. 117.
75 M. Rovinello, Il teatro della Nazione: “giochi identitari” nella Napoli dell’Ottocento in "Contemporanea. Rivista
di storia dell'800 e del 900", forthcoming.
76 MAE, C.C.C., Naples, vol. 46, ff. 413-414 and MAE, Correspondance Politique des Consuls, Naples, vol. 157, f.
65.
73
17
For the members of French elite as well as for the diplomatic authorities
“Frenchness” is not a decisive factor in drawing a sharp boundary between insiders and
outsiders and in building their network in the host country. French merchants and
entrepreneurs live their everyday life and make their choices in professional and private
sphere within such a cosmopolite but rigorously rank-based environment. This context is
very open to everyone could be considered “worthy” of being member of the Nation but –
as we’ll show in the next paragraph – is almost inaccessible for more humble people even
if they would have the right to be considered French subjects.
Even in the middle of the nineteenth century, while British and Swiss “proudly
affirm their own identity”77 and let their lives run “parallel”78 with locals, in the French
colony being “Merchant” is much more meaningful than being “French”.
2.2 Workers, soldiers, shopkeepers, and households: French common people in Naples
A huge “job centre”79: this is how nineteenth century Naples must have looked like to
those who, decide to move to the city in the hope of bettering their economic conditions. It
is one of the biggest European cities with a population of about 400,000 inhabitants and it
offers an indefinite number of job opportunities even to those coming without particular
skills or economic resources.
Humbler French migrants (ex-soldiers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, etc.) have no
problem in taking the occasions which arise from this enormous labour market. As their
richer countrymen, they integrate themselves very quickly. And, as their countrymen,
their sociality is strictly “horizontal”. They do not associate with other Frenchmen just
because of linguistic/cultural proximity or common sense of national identity, but they get
used to local people who share the same social rank, sometimes the same job, very often
the same slums. Their sociality does not perform in clubs and salons, but mostly on the
Caglioti, Imprenditori evangelici... cit., p. 248.
Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit.
79 N. Anderson, Il vagabondo. Sociologia dell'uomo senza dimora, Roma, Donzelli, 1994, p. 29.
77
78
18
road, in taverns where they spend their spare time80, and in alleys where most of them
live.
As in Bari and other Italian towns already studied, much more than an abstract sense
of national identity, the neighbourhood “produces affinity”81. It strengthens over time the
network among people (above all migrants) living in the same area regardless of their
origin or native language.
Therefore, it is not surprising either that their neighbours are very often the witnesses
of French migrants’ weddings82, or that 66,5% of them marries a partner belongs to the
same neighbourhood, both locals (a great majority) and countrymen (in a few cases). This
percentage even increases if we limit the analysis to specific professional categories:
among shopkeepers it is about 70%, among householders is 77,2%.
Together with a spatial endogamy, French migrants’ marriages are characterised by a
large social endogamy too. As their richer countrymen, bakers, booksellers, workmen, and
other common people choose their partner mostly within their milieu: at least 60-65% of
their partners belongs to the same social status. Something more: even if “…on ne peut
concevoir les unités macroscopiques telles que les catégories professionnelles comme
nécessairement homogènes ou solidaires”83, about 62% of soldiers gets married with
collegues’s daughters, 51,7% of teachers and hommes de lettres does the same as well as
58,1% of the French householders.
Once more these migrants build very dense networks which include both
countrymen and locals with no apparent distinction. However, in comparison with those
of elite members, these networks are much more localised and embedding. As Swiss
craftsmen, salesclerks, and soldiers84, when French migrants settle in a neighbourhood,
they do not move across the city any more.
ASN, Ministero dell'Interno e Polizia della Luogotenenza delle province napoletane (“Alta polizia”), f. 56, fasc.lo
800.
81 Carrino, I flussi migratori... cit., p. 69.
82 62,5% of the French weddings’ witnesses registered in the Neapolitan registry office between 1806 and
1860 live in the same neighbourhood of the French migrant getting married, and about 20% live in the same
street.
83 G. Levi, Carrières d'artisans et marché du travail à Turin (XVIIIe - XIXe siècles) in "Annales ESC", 45, 1990, pp.
1351-1364, p. 1363.
84 Rovinello, “Gente meccaniche”... cit.
80
19
It is not a specific area or a “ethnic island” as the Swiss’ one85 to embed them. French
mostly settle according to their job needs and social status (Fig. 6)86, regardless of the
presence of countrymen (very often they even share apartments with Neapolitan
colleagues). However, in this limited area they strake so deep roots that it is more likely
that they leave Naples than they settle in another area of the capital.
Fig. 6
So this class-oriented sociality and this short interest in a communitarian sociality
based on the common national identity, which were typical of old regime French poor
Ibid., pp. 277-279.
The French migrants’ distribution on the Neapolitan territory is very similar to the locals’ one. Both French
and Neapolitan elites prefer settling in the exclusive neighbourhoods of Chiaia, San Ferdinando, and San
Giuseppe, while working classes settle in other neighbourhoods, next to the seaport and the official public
market (mostly people working as porters, and small merchants), next to their shops in the city centre or
elsewhere (i.e. booksellers in Via San Biagio dei Librai, the area traditionally occupied by this kind of sellers),
and next to the factories where they are employed (mostly in Vicaria, Stella, and Avvocata).
85
86
20
migrants87, is still the characteristic feature of French drifters’ sociality in the middle of
nineteenth century. As their predecessors all over Mediterranean area, French diplomats
in Bourbon Naples probably contribute to split the community that they should to create
and make compact under the common flag of the king of France.
While during the whole period under analysis the British consul backs his
countrymen’ struggle to have their own hospital and cemetery and the Protestant Swiss
and German minorities fight against the Neapolitan government to obtain their own
church and school, the French consul in Naples has no try to give his countrymen places
and occasion where they could affirm and consolidate their own cultural/linguistic
identity and their membership of a sharply distinct national community. French
immigrants have neither school, nor cemetery, nor a national church88 as they had in the
early modern age89.
Even when consuls and ambassadors organize public ceremonies or parties to
celebrate the “grandeur de Sa Majesté le Roi, du people et de toute la Nation française”90,
they are not interested in “nationalizing” these people involving them actively in the
organization and the progress of such events. Besides, many migrants do not feel
themselves part of this community and they have no will to take part in its activities. The
“Nation” must seem to them something too vague and far away from their experience and
everyday life.
While the most influent merchants and entrepreneurs of the community lead the
parades, show off their paternalistic care towards their more humble countrymen by
giving out them money or promising them protection, and hold public speeches as they
were the only legitimate holders of the “Frenchness”, common people restrict themselves
to be mere extras or even desert the public holidays. They can only compose the
impressive framework which both French elite members and diplomats need to show
others Nationes, Neapolitan authorities, and French Foreign Office in Paris the unity and
the power of the French colony in the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.
Y. Debbasch, La nation française en Tunisie (1577-1835), Paris, 1957; Filippini, La Nazione... cit.; Ozanam, La
colonie française... cit.
88 MAE, C.C.C., Naples, vol. 170, ff. 192-193.
89 G. Ajello, Napoli e luoghi celebri delle sue vicinanze, 2 vol., Napoli, Tipografia Nobile, 1845, vol. I, p. 410.
90 MAE, C.C.C., Naples, vol. 170, ff. 198-199.
87
21
As in the previous centuries, “petits boutiquiers français […] ne sont pas réputés de
la nation à cause de la médiocrité de leur fortune et de leur commerce”91. So, excluded
from the official colony’s life and sociality, and deeply integrated in the Neapolitan
environment, most of French migrants accept and at the same time strengthen their
condition of “denizens”. They gradually lose their juridical status of French and the right
linked to the foreign condition in the Bourbon kingdom without formally acquiring the
Neapolitan citizenship.
While merchants and entrepreneurs define themselves according to a corporative and
supranational form of identity – while using sometimes a national identification in an
opportunistic way according to their immediate needs and interests92 - lower class
migrants can live in Naples almost without a national identity, something which is
actually not necessary even in the middle of the “the Nation building century”93.
3. Conclusions
This paper has briefly analysed the patterns of the French migration to nineteenth
century Naples and some aspects of French migrants’ presence in the Mezzogiorno.
French migration to Naples, which involves about 4.000 people during the whole
period 1806-1860, is characterised by the absence of migration chains and the
extraordinary mobility of its protagonists. French move to Southern Italy all over the first
part of the century with no substantial difference between the Decennio and the Bourbon
and they do it mostly alone, but they do not stay in the Mezzogiorno for ever. Although
they strike roots in the city integrating themselves very quickly regardless of their social
status (maybe thanks to the weakness of ethnic-based relationships in the host country),
most of them do not hesitate to leave Naples when it could be favourable. As coming to
the Mezzogiorno is often a gradual run composed by several legs, staying in Naples does
not represent the final stop. Multiple migrations and even returns to homeland are very
frequent in the French migrants’ experience.
Ozanam, La colonie française... cit., p. 267.
See Smyrnelis, Jeux d'identité... cit. and Rovinello, Il teatro... cit.
93 W. Bagehot, Physics and politics: or thoughts on the application of the principles of "Natural Selection" and
"inheritance" to political society, London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1887cit., p. 20.
91
92
22
However, in describing the French migrants in Naples, this paper has implicitly
asked whether it makes sense to classify these people as « French » - that is according to a
national conception of identity – already in the first half of nineteenth century.
The answer to this huge question is too complex to be briefly explained here and
the sole case study I have analysed should be compared with others concerning other
French colonies in the Mediterranean and European cities before drawing any conclusion.
However, it is evident that the Nation française settled in Naples and lead by the
Consul looks much more like a corporative and restricted group of influent merchants
regardless of their effective citizenship and sense of membership (as in the previous
centuries) than a national minority in the post-Revolution meaning of the concept.
Although their everyday life in a host country should force them to think over their
being foreigners, outsiders from the linguistic and cultural local community, constituting a
national minority opposed to a national (or sub-national) majority, French migrants
perceive other and more traditional identities (religious and above all professional) as
prevalent in comparison with the national one. It can be occasionally used in an
opportunistic-situational way94 by merchants and entrepreneurs, in order to get
advantages from it95, but neither elite members nor common people moving to Naples
regard it as the exclusive and indelible brand it should already be according to the official
rules on French citizenship96 and the massive process of mass nationalization started up
by governments all over Europe.
A. L. Epstein, L'identità etnica. Tre studi sull'etnicità, Torino, Loescher, 1983; A. Cohen, La lezione dell'etnicità,
in V. Maher (a cura di), Questioni di etnicità Torino, Rosenberg & Sellier, 1994, pp. 135-152.
95 Some examples of this instrumental use of the national identity made by merchants in the nineteenth
century are available in Smyrnelis, Jeux d'identité... cit. In my contribute to the Historical Society’s 2008
Conference I will try to show that during the whole nineteenth century French people settled in Naples
(whose migration and settlement patterns I have analysed in this paper) have the chance of re-defining and
negotiating their membership/non-membership to their « National family », as well as their belonging to
other groups based on a common faith or socio-economic status, pulling up and not substituting the earlymodern rank division of the society with the forthcoming national one.
96 P. Weil, Qu'est-ce qu'un Français? Histoire de la nationalité française depuis la Revolution, Paris, Grasset &
Fasquelle, 2004.
94
23
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