ABSTRACT
The motto “Deliciae regis felicitas populi” upheld the reign of the Bourbon King of Two Sicilies, Charles III. In 1752, he had the phrase stamped on the coin placed under the first stone of his royal palace in Caserta. Two years later in Naples, the Tuscan Bartolomeo Intieri instituted history’s first chair in economic matters “Cattedra di commercio e meccanica” (chair on commerce and mechanics).92 Antonio Genovesi was asked to take up this position so that economic studies could be oriented towards the building of that felicitas populi which was to become the emblem of the Italian economic tradition.
