Despotism and the Road to Freedom: Cesare Beccaria and Eighteenth-Century Lombardy

D espotism and the Road to Freedom :onmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONML Cesare Beccaria and Eighteenth-C entury Lom bardy D A V ID Y O U N G Comme ntatorshave note dtwo parad oxe s in Ce sareBe ccarias O n C rim es and Punishm ents. The first is the contrast b e twe e n his appe al to social contract d octrine sand his utilitarianism.1 Thus Be nthamhaile dBe ccaria as his maste r and a pione e ron the path of utility , 2 y e tBe ccaria re ste d the found ationof political authority on a minimal surre nd e r of natural rights to the sove re ign,a proce d ureab horre ntto Be ntham. 3 The se cond appare nt contrad ictionis Becarria's advocacy of enlightened depostism standing side-by-side with his strenuous efforts to limit the coercive (espe­ cially the punitive) power of the sovereign.4 Thus, when speaking of the monarchs of his day, Beccaria declared that 'enlightened citizens" should "desire more ardently the increase of their authority" and that "the growth of their authority constitutes the happiness of their subjects;"5 yet, earlier in his book, he had stated, "Every punishment which does not derive from absolute necessity, says the great Montesquieu, is tyrannical. The propo­ sition may be made general thus: every act of authority between one man and another which does not derive from absolute necessity is tyrannical."6 Now these two paradoxes — that of the odd coupling of social contract theory with utilitarianism and that of the strange blend of authoritarian­ ism and libertarianism — are more closely related than is commonly real­ ized. Further, both seeming contradictions may be resolved, at least to 271 272 / YOUNG some extent, by examining the context in which Beccaria wrote, the con­ text of eighteenth-century Lombardy. Such an investigation must begin with an understanding of what Bec­ caria was opposing. He and the other young men joined together in the so-called "Academy of Fisticuffs" in the early 1760s were above all foes of the legacy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, of the culture of the Counter-Reformation and of Spanish rule in Milan.7 Spanish domi­ nance in Italy generally and in Lombardy especially had served as a bar­ rier against the introduction of new intellectual currents from beyond the Alps. The vigorous critical thought of an earlier day had been replaced by a rather sterile scholasticism and conformity.8 Economically, the period of Spanish hegemony had been a time of de­ pression in Milan. Though the problems of the general deflation of the seventeenth century and the rise of Northern manufactures, developments which were most baneful for Italy, were not of Spain s making, Spain did exacerbate the difficulties.9 Spanish governance typified what Professor Trevor-Roper has called the "Counter-Reformation state": an expanding and parasitic civil and ecclesiastical bureaucracy.10 Moreover, the Spanish regime was superimposed upon existing structures; it did not supplant them. Lombards had to pay dearly to support the Spanish state and their own local rulers.11 Certain groups, however, did benefit from Spanish rule. The clergy re­ ceived larger properties, and clerical estates, held in mortmain, enjoyed total tax exemption.12 Further, Lombardy's secular elite became more and more a landowning nobility whose entailed estates likewise enjoyed fiscal privileges.13 Finally, under Spanish administration, office-holding and the profession of law had become increasingly important routes to power and prestige. To a large extent, Lombardy was governed by jurists.14 The most important local body was the Senate of Milan, which, though it had some administrative functions, was mainly a court. Among its other powers, it claimed a right of judicial review over new legislation.15 At this point, something should be said about the nature of law in Milan and in much of Europe. Since the Middle Ages, most of the Continent had followed Roman law, though such jurisprudence was greatly modi­ fied by local custom, religious precepts, precedents established by judicial decisions, and the commentaries of distinguished jurists.16 The prevailing legal systems certainly had numerous defects, and many commentators in the eighteenth century and since have...