The Napoleonic Empire in Italy: the Transfer of Tax Ideas and Political Legitimacy, 1802‑14

Alexander Grab

Chapter 4 in Global Debates about Taxation, 2007, pp 61-79 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract On 20 April 1814, a large and agitated crowd gathered outside the Senate building in Milan, the capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Two weeks earlier, on 6 April, Napoleon had abdicated as the French emperor. Now, opponents of the Napoleonic government in Milan were plotting an uprising, hoping to use the crowd to overthrow the regime. The anti-French atmosphere was palpable. The throng broke into the Senate, which was in session, demolishing the interior and forcing the senators to flee. The crowd was then incited to proceed to San Fedele, where the house of Giuseppe Prina, the hated finance minister, was located. Once inside the house, the angry mob looted it, beat up Prina, and threw him out of the window. The battered body of the poor finance minister continued to be hit and stabbed in the street until he perished.1 Soon, the Austrians entered Milan and the Kingdom of Italy expired. Prina’s murder symbolized the end of the Napoleonic regime in northern Italy, which had lost its legitimacy in good part due to the heavy taxes it had imposed and the efficiency with which it collected them.

Keywords: State Income; Finance Minister; Indirect Taxis; French System; Global Debate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-62551-8_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230625518_4

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