2 - A science for the “civilizing” of nations

Summary

In 1826 in the pages of the Annali universali di statistica, the most important journal of the liberal and rationalist-oriented Lombard intelligentsia, the editor, Francesco Lampato, related the diffusion of an interest in statistics to the new “spirit of the time”: “Men, once bellicose, now industrious, address their curiosity to the progress of industry, where earlier they addressed it to the successes of war; and this is demonstrated by the general passion for statistics”. Having featured articles on the theory of statistics and statistical publications from its start in 1824, along with articles on political economy, geography, voyages, history, and so on (the complete title of the journal was Annali universali di statistica, economia pubblica, storia, viaggi e commercio), this journal also began in 1827 providing its readers with figures that could be of more direct interest to their commercial activities, such as those on the sale of silk in London, and on the condition of the silk market in other Italian states. From 1831 onwards a special section in the journal assembled quantitative information concerning various European as well as Italian states.

The “general passion for statistics” underscored by the editor of the Annali was not limited to Lombardy–Venetia, the most commercially developed area in Italy.