I consoli francesi in Sardegna nel decennio preunitario. Politica, economia e società

The center of attention of this thesis is the commercial relations between France, the island of Sardinia and the city of Genoa, as well as the business ventures of French capitalists thanks to the support of the most important businessmen in the two financial cities of the Kingdom of Sardinia (Genoa and Turin) during the so-called Cavourian decade. This work is based mainly on French both political and economical consular reports sent from the post of Cagliari, one of the strategic Mediterranean ports. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is entirely dedicated to the economic junctures that contributed to create a wide and integrated French-Ligurian-Sardinian trading and industrial area. The second chapter examines the commercial activity, the investment areas and the entrepreneurial units and companies in Sardinia, where there was a strong presence of French and Ligurian businessmen (mines, salines, agriculture, infrastructures, banks and so forth). The third chapter recreates the setting (cities and coastal towns) where French consuls, viceconsuls and consular agents were called to protect the French interests. The work analyses also the social setting by offering a description of the condition of life and economical problems that obliged people to strive for the annexation of Sardinia to an European main power as France. To conclude, the thesis describes the main aspects of the French community in Sardinia, mostly composed by merchants. It includes the biographies of French consuls in Cagliari from 1848 to 1861 .