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)

2

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.

1 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. 867-903. 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

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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

1

10

100

1000

10000

1800

1803

1806

1809

1812

1815

1818

1821

1824

1827

1830

1833

1836

1839

1842

1845

1848

1851

1854

1857

1860

Consolato Polizia 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.

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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 Euro-

mediterranean 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.

10 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, Ithaca-London, 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. Ballmer-Tschudin, 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, Roma-Bari, 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.

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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 Ibid. 18 Ibid.

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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

19 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.

7

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

23 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. 522-546; 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.

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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.

Composizione professionale dei francesi ignoti al Consolato (%)

5,5

27,6

11,44,214,3

15,4

7,25,5

8,9

Addetti al negozio DomesticiUomini di lettere Militari e ex miliatariProprietari DonneLiberi professionisti Impiegati pubbliciSenza professione/Non indicata

Fig. 3

Together with a restricted minority

composed by few hundreds of négociants,

fabricants and proprietaires who can be

considered as protagonists of an elite-

migration29, a large number of French

moving to Naples belong to inferior social

ranks and come to the Mezzogiorno within

a subsistence or betterment migration30

(Fig. 3).

They Actually do not significantly differ

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

29 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.

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significant element of distinction between middle and upper classes coming to the

Southern Italy.

Department Migrants

Seine 270

Bouches du Rhône 250

Rhône 113

Corse 73

Var 68

Isère 67

Hérault 54

Gard 50

Seine et Oise 39

Haut Rhin 33

Others 1171

Tab. 1

Place of birth Migrants Migrants to Naples/total

hinabitants (1836) x 10.000 Paris 262 2,88

Marseille 197 13,49

Lyon 92 6,09

Grenoble 30 10,34

Nîmes 28 6,51

Aix 25 10,00

Bordeaux 24 2,42

Toulon 20 5,71

Toulouse 20 2,59

Others 1.394 -

Tab. 2

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.

35 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.

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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-

37 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.

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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

40 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. 705-739 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 franco-napoletano... 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.

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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 non-

Catholic 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

48 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.

13

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-

53 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.

14

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

59 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.

15

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.

66 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.

16

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.

70 Filippini, La Nazione... cit. and Ozanam, La colonie française... cit. 71 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... .

17

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,

British, Austrian, etc. – are regularly invited

to official celebrations and parties

organized by French diplomats to celebrate

the King’s birthday or any public national

holiday73, theoretically reserved to French

subjects. Swiss, German, and even

Neapolitan business community members

do not just take part in French colony’s

events.

Composizione professionale dei francesi iscritti al Consolato

5%4% 3% 3%

5%

5%

5%

7% 63%

Addetti al negozio ProprietariMilitari e ex miliatari AltreImpiegati pubblici Liberi professionistiDomestici Uomini di lettereCuochi

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.

73 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.

18

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

77 Caglioti, Imprenditori evangelici... cit., p. 248. 78 Caglioti, Vite parallele... cit. 79 N. Anderson, Il vagabondo. Sociologia dell'uomo senza dimora, Roma, Donzelli, 1994, p. 29.

19

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.

80 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.

20

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

85 Ibid., pp. 277-279. 86 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).

21

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.

87 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.

22

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.

91 Ozanam, La colonie française... cit., p. 267. 92 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.

23

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.

94 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 early-modern 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.

24

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