Carta della Sicilia

He was born on April 5, 1785, in Como—specifically in the parish of San Fedele—to Pietro Velzi; nothing is known about his mother. Giuseppe de Welz was, in fact, the pseudonym of Giuseppe Giulio Vincenzo Velzi (Banca moderna..., 2004). The reasons prompting him to change his surname to "de Welz" remain unclear, though the choice is generally attributed to a desire for an exotic flair intended to boost his business visibility (Severin, 1965, p. 18). After completing a classical education at the *ginnasio-liceo* in Como, he moved to Milan at a very young age to begin his commercial training; as a commercial agent, he soon embarked on business trips across Europe. By the time he was twenty, he was already acting as a commission agent for a network of over fifty international manufacturing firms spanning Italy, Switzerland, Germany, England, France, and Sweden. Thanks to his exceptional organizational skills and an uncommon aptitude for commerce, he was invited between 1808 and 1814 to enter into a business partnership with the Milanese merchant and banker Paolo Battaglia, who entrusted him with managing various trading houses located in Genoa, Naples, and Kostajnica (Croatia). The Napoleonic era offered de Welz a highly fortunate opportunity to develop his expertise in international trade and to shape his economic convictions. Thanks to Battaglia’s patronage, the support of prominent politicians—such as Ferdinando Marescalchi and Antonio Aldini—and the backing of diplomats of various ranks across Europe, he was able to carry out significant commercial ventures, establishing relationships with numerous countries during his frequent business travels. He lived for extended periods in France, England, and Austria, focusing primarily on the trade of cotton and fabrics between the Middle East, France, and Italy, and secondarily on other goods, including pack animals. He established livestock quarantine depots in Hungary and set up a base of operations in Thessaloniki—enabling various commercial agents to visit and familiarize themselves with key markets in Greece and Asia Minor—while securing privileges for himself and his agents to operate within Turkish provinces. The travels and experiences of this intense period of professional growth also gave de Welz the opportunity to refine his economic convictions through direct observation of the economic and financial conditions in other states and the study of the institutional and political factors that had shaped their respective development paths. Convinced by the positive impact the Napoleonic "Continental Blockade" system had on previously stagnant industrial sectors, he became a staunch advocate of protectionism, a stance he never wavered from over time. Following the fall of the Napoleonic Empire and the dissolution of his partnership with Paolo Battaglia, he settled permanently in Naples, where he lived until 1828. He had previously passed through the city in 1810, immediately establishing business ties with local entrepreneurs. Indeed, records from October 1814 confirm the dissolution of *de Welz e Viollier*—a general partnership based in Naples that he had founded with Augusto Viollier to engage in general financial and banking activities. He maintained enduring ties with this Swiss-born entrepreneur and merchant—who was active in various sectors (ranging from paper and wine to shipping and finance) across Naples and Sicily—even going so far as to co-found a new general partnership in 1814: *de Welz & Co.* In addition to Viollier, the powerful local banker of Swiss descent, Emanuele Appelt, also joined this venture. Although this partnership was short-lived—dissolving in 1816—it bears witness to the solid relationships he had established within the financial circles of the restored Bourbon Kingdom, connections that remained intact despite the shifting political fortunes of the ensuing years. Indeed, in January 1821—during the nine-month constitutional period following the 1820 revolutionary uprisings—he collaborated with Viollier and Appelt to spearhead a proposal for a twenty-year loan designed to meet the State's massive financial needs. The plan was presented to Parliament by the newly appointed Minister of Finance, Giuseppe Carignani di Novoli. It stipulated that "Messrs. de Welz and Viollier, as well as the Appelt firm" (F. Barbagallo, *Carignani Giuseppe*, in *Dizionario biografico degli Italiani*, XX, Rome 1977, pp. 91–93), would advance a sum of 10 million ducats, secured by a mortgage on the *Tavoliere delle Puglie* and other state assets yet to be specified. The Neapolitan Parliament approved the proposal, though its own tenure ended just over a month later following the second Bourbon restoration.