ABSTRACT
A balance of the survival of corporations within the friendly society in Milan presumes the idea of an evolution from one organisation to another. In the process, some corporations became specialised, while others were hierarchically organised. The functioning of these friendly societies was assured by formal rules and by the promotion of a new morality. However this did not prevent the intervention of some informal rules to sustain the formal ones, based on established practices of reciprocal assistance and morality, that were already applied by older corporations. 1. In Milan, 1 in this period, there already existed about 10 friendly societies. This number was limited compared with other Italian regions, especially the ones of Piedmont and Tuscany. Among the reasons for this situation it is worth remembering that in the second quarter of the century, the particular political situation in Lombardy did not facilitate its diffusion. Nevertheless the friendly societies of Lombardy and Milan were not substantially different from others in Italy, as shown by the figures for those societies created after 1859. Therefore this situation did not necessarily denounce the absence of these mutualistic customs.
