ABSTRACT
The modern economy was born with this stigma: an enormous rise in begging and street crime. This happened all over Europe.1 Among the causes we can certainly count the epidemics, famines, wars and monetary manoeuvres by the nations, as Cipolla wrote.2 But above all there was the tumultuous transition from the still semi-feudal economy of the last centuries to the sixteenth century’s economy of growing manufacturing and trade. All countries adopted stringent measures to combat the huge increase in beggars.3 These were first measures of repression.4 But as time went by the repressive policies were increasingly joined to other measures which consisted of helping the poor through public works and support for production.5
