ABSTRACT
The Italy which emerged from the long period of Spanish rule had undergone a profound transformation. Economically, its industrial and commercial activities had declined; the population of its cities had long remained stationary or even fallen. Within the countryside the structure of landownership had changed. Ecclesiastical and noble holdings had increased in size and concentration. Ecclesiastical possessions grew steadily with donations to the Church, that varied from small plots to fairly large estates. The total area of land owned by the clergy and nobles in the early eighteenth century, and the degree of its concentration, can be reconstructed for many of the states with reasonable accuracy. As the pressure of foreign competition increased in the eighteenth century, the industrial and commercial physiognomy of the Italian cities changed. Control of the cities remained primarily in the hands of the nobles. It was the nobles who set the tone of social life.
