ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the structure of the aristocratic patrimony. The structure of the Neapolitan aristocratic family, in fact, differed very little from that of its counterparts in other regions during the Italian ancien regime. The first problem to be dealt with is, naturally, the numerical proportions of the aristocratic classes in the Kingdom of Naples. In the Kingdom of Naples the nobility also failed to keep full control over the institutions of the central government. In the Piedmont of the Savoy dynasty the feudal nobility continued to play an important role in Court politics up until the 1580s. The trend for a progressive increase in the feudal income, as opposed to a drop in the jurisdictional income, can also be traced in the fiefs of Ruffo di Scilla in Calabria between 1587 and 1803. In the historical experience of the deep South, feudalism and its concomitant juridical and economic privileges counted for much more than in Lombardia.
