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Assicurazioni Generali: a Journey that started in 1831 (1800 - 1830)
Citation preview
4
1800
-183
0
Trieste: a fertile ground
TTrieste: a fertile ground
lishment of an insurance company: Compagnia
d’Assicurazione. Other companies were founded
between the end of the 18th and the beginning
of the 19th century. In 1804, faced with the dam-
age caused by the violence of the Bora wind, 15
insurance companies formed a syndicate, the
first in the history of marine insurance, entrusted
with the task of fixing common conditions and
premium rates.
he beginning of the century brought great pros-
perity to Trieste: these were years of bustling ac-
tivity during which trade expanded, the popula-
tion grew and the many neo-classical buildings
that can still be admired today were built. The
insurance business developed, too. It had taken
root in Trieste in 1766 when Maria Theresa of
Austria – who had given impulse to the develop-
ment of the free port – encouraged the estab-
Napoleon in Trieste. French troops enter the city in 1797 in a painting by Alfredo Tominz.
A flourishing port. Trieste in an early 19th century print.
1800-1830 5
The situation, howev-
er, soon changed. Dur-
ing the second and, par-
ticularly, third occupa-
tion by the Napoleonic
troops, Trieste – which
had been cut off from its hinterland and stran-
gled by the British naval blockade – underwent
a major economic disaster. It was only with the
restoration of Austrian sovereignty and the re-
introduction of the “former privileges of the
free port” that the right
conditions were creat-
ed for an economic re-
birth. The change was
also reflected in the
rapid growth of the in-
surance industry, with
a flurry of new initia-
tives.
One of the personalities
who stood out in this
period was Giuseppe
Lazzaro Morpurgo, a
businessman who was
fascinated by insurance theory and practice. He
was the first, in 1814, to give renewed impetus
to the insurance business by establishing Ac-
comandita di Assicurazioni. This was followed
by the foundation of Azienda Assicuratrice in
1822, for which he succeeded in gathering sig-
nificant venture capital. However, his dream
of creating an all-round insurance company
based on extensive capital, multi-branch oper-
ations and widespread territorial range had to
wait for another ten years before it eventually
became a reality.
An ambitious initiative. Thanks to his experience matured in the insurance sector, in 1822 Giuseppe Lazzaro Morpurgo established Azienda Assicuratrice, the first ever Trieste com-pany to have significant capital at its disposal.
The early companies. A stock ownership certificate issued by Unione di Assicuratori, established in Trieste in 1794.
Giuseppe Lazzaro Morpurgo
Looking out
1800 - Alessandro Volta announces the invention of the pile.
1804 - Napoleon declares himself Emper-or of the French.
1806 - After a thousand years, the Holy Roman Empire officially ceases to exist.
1807 - Idealist philosopher Friedrich He-gel publishes Phenomenology of Spirit.
1815 - Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo. Af-ter the Congress of Vienna, the Lombardo Vene-to Kingdom is assigned to Austria and the Papal States are restored. Russia, Austria and Prussia forge the Holy Alliance.
1819 - Sir Walter Scott publishes Ivanhoe.
1821 - Simón Bolívar defeats the Spanish in the Venezuelan battle of Carabobo.
1825 - The first passenger railway is inaugurated in England, eleven years after George Stephen-son had invented the steam locomotive.
1829 - Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Sympho-ny is performed for the first time.
1830 - In France, the “July revolution” overthrows King Charles X; Louis-Philippe of Orléans, is crowned King.
Hokusai paints The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa, a master-piece of Japanese Art.
6 A tormented city
A tormented city
Trieste in the Middle Ages, around 1370.
5th century BCIn his Histories, Herodotus writes that the ancient
road on which Mediterranean-bound goods are
conveyed from the Danubian hinterland ends at
the “sinus tergestinus”.
1st century BCTrieste becomes a Roman colony. The theatre
and the forum on the Capitoline hill are built be-
tween the 1st and the 2nd century AD.
948King Lothar II grants the Church of Trieste, which
is contended by Aquileia and Grado, juridical
and fiscal immunity.
1150The Arab traveller Idris
recalls Trieste as “a flour-
ishing city, full of en-
trepreneurs, indus-
tries and traders”.
1202Trieste is forced to
swear allegiance to the
Republic of Venice.
1382Venice renounces all claims on Trieste, which
readily submits to Austria.
1719Charles VI of Hapsburg grants Trieste free port
status. The benefits arising from imperial privi-
leges and exemptions attract traders and entre-
preneurs from all over Europe. The new status
proves to be a decisive factor in bringing about
that blend of cultures and experiences that ulti-
mately forge Trieste’s cosmopolitan character.
1740Maria Theresa of Hapsburg launches a major de-
velopment drive by introducing the urban regis-
try, extending education to all social classes and,
with the removal of the city walls, accelerating
the integration between the old aristocratic nu-
cleus and the new mercantile class-
es already settled in the new part of
town, the Borgo Teresiano.
Trieste is solemnly declared a free port by Charles VI in 1719, in a painting by Cesare dell’Acqua.
Maria Theresa of Hapsburg, Sover-eign of Austria from 1740 to 1780.
Maximilian of Hapsburg departs for Mexico.
Plan of the city and free port around 1800.
1849Francis Joseph elevates Trieste to the status of
“immediate town of the Empire”, granting the
local Diet greater autonomy.
1864From Miramare Castle, the residence he has built
not far from Trieste, Maximilian, brother of Emper-
or Francis Joseph, embarks on his ill-fated journey
to assume the imperial crown of Mexico.
1918At the end of the
First World War,
Trieste becomes
part of Italy.
1943After the armistice of September 8, the Germans
establish the OZAK (Operationszone Adriatisches
Küstenland), which comprises the north-eastern
border region of Italy with Trieste, Gorizia and
Udine, as well as parts of present Slovenia and
Croatia (Ljubljana, Istria and the Kvarner Gulf ).
1945After forty days under Yugoslav occupation, Tri-
este is placed under Anglo-American adminis-
tration.
1954With the Memorandum of Understanding
(signed in London on October 26), Trieste reverts
to Italian rule.
1975The treaty of Osimo definitively endorses the
agreement of 1954: Trieste and Zone A are as-
signed to Italy, whereas Zone B is handed over
to Yugoslavia.
In 2004, Trieste celebrates the 50th anniversary of its reversion to Italy with the national Alpini reunion and other events.
The foundation of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche 8
1831
-184
0
T here were in Trieste in 1831 some twenty in-
surance companies. With the sole exception of
Azienda Assicuratrice, all were small entities with
modest financial means, operating mainly in ma-
rine insurance. At that time, the conditions in the
city were suitable for the creation of a large in-
surance company that could compete with the
big players emerging in nearby Lombardo Vene-
to Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe.
The man behind this initiative was once again
Giuseppe Lazzaro Morpurgo. Drawing on the ex-
perience gained with Azienda Assicuratrice (and
in full awareness of the limits of that type of in-
surance company), Morpurgo gathered around
him a group of entrepreneurs who shared his
drive and enthusiasm to launch the ambitious
project he had been nurturing for many years.
On December 26, 1831, the memorandum of
association of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-
Italiche was signed.
The first headquarters. The neo-classical Palazzo Carciotti, built in the early 19th century by a wealthy Greek merchant, housed Generali’s headquarters from its foundation to 1866.
The foundation of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche
1831 - Vincenzo Bellini composes Norma and The Sleepwalker.
1834 - A number of German states form the Zollverein or customs union.
Louis Braille develops the systems of printing allowing the blind to read.
1836 - Davy Crockett dies in the bat-tle of Alamo during the war between Mexico and Texas.
1837 - Queen Victoria ascends the throne: she will reign over the British Empire until 1901.
Louis Daguerre develops the first pho-tographic technique.
1839 - The Opium war begins; China will ulti-mately cede Hong Kong to Great Britain in 1842.
1840 - The first stamp, known as the penny black, is issued in Great Britain.
Looking out
1831-1840 9
December 26, 1831. The foundation date of Assicurazioni Generali is remembered for a tremendous storm that struck the city of Trieste, as depicted in a painting of the time.
Initial capital. Assicurazioni Generali’s initial capital was 2 million Florins, divided into 2,000 shares of 1,000 Florins each: a truly remark-able sum, enough to sustain four or five families for an entire year.
The memorandum. Assicurazioni Generali’s memo-randum of association, made up of 47 articles, was approved by the shareholders’ meeting held on Feb-ruary 16, 1832.
Looking in
1831 - On December 26, the memorandum of association of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche is signed.
1832 - On February 16, the shareholders’ meet-ing approves the articles of association and ap-points Giovanni Cristoforo Ritter de Zahony as chairman of the Company.
In July, the Company rents a number of rooms in the Procuratie Vecchie building in Venice’s Piazza San Marco where it establishes the Veneto Head Office, in charge of operations in the Italian peninsula.
1835 - Ritter de Zahony resigns. The Board of Di-rectors decides that a new chairman will not be ap-pointed. The post will remain vacant until 1909.
1836 - Masino Levi, Generali’s agent in Padua, is called to Trieste and is ap-pointed secretary general – a post he will maintain for for-ty years. Leone Pincherle is appointed secretary general at the Veneto Head Office.
The foundation of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche 10
1831
-184
0
The difficult expansionin the Italian territories
Kingdom of Sardinia1832 - Generali opens an agency in Genoa, which is soon closed as a consequence of disappointing re-sults.1840 - Generali obtains a new licence from King Charles Albert authorising it to operate in all lines of business ex-cept fire, which is reserved to Società Reale Mutua.1855 - Generali is authorised to underwrite fire insur-ance in Piedmont.
Papal States1832 - Generali opens two agencies, one in Ferrara and the other in Ancona.1836 - Generali opens an agency in Rome.1837 - Local authorities establish Società Pontificia di Assicurazioni, which enjoys a monopoly of insur-ance business (granted by the State). All foreign com-panies are expelled.1860 - Società Pontificia di Assicurazioni cedes the portfolio of its agencies in the regions of Emilia and Romagna – now annexed to the Kingdom of Italy – to Generali.1862 - Generali takes over the entire insurance busi-ness of Società Pontificia di Assicurazioni.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany1832 - Generali opens an agency in Florence. Its ac-tivity in the Grand Duchy proceeds smoothly.
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies1833 - Generali opens its first agency in Naples.1846 - Restrictive laws are enforced against foreign insurers.1855 - Generali is once again authorised to operate in the Kingdom.1863 - Following the annexation of southern Italy to the Kingdom of Italy, Generali opens agencies in Sicily.
Duchy of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla1837 - Generali is authorised to operate and opens an agency in Parma.1849 - The license is withdrawn following the intro-duction of the insurance monopoly in the Duchy.1860 - Generali resumes operations following the an-nexation of the Duchy to Italy.
Duchy of Modena1839 - Generali is granted formal authorisation to op-erate and opens two agencies, in Modena and in Reg-gio Emilia.1841 - Insurance monopoly is intoduced and all for-eign companies are expelled.1860 - Generali resumes operations following the an-nexation of the Duchy to Italy.
The Italian territories in 1840
Kingdom of Sardinia
Lombardo Veneto Kingdom
Duchy of Parma
Duchy of Modena
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Papal States
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
1831-1840 11
The Veneto Head Office. In July 1832, Generali rented a portion of the Procuratie Vecchie building in Venice’s Piazza San Marco.
The new Company could rely on a capital of two
million Austrian Florins, ten times as much as the
average capital paid up by other Trieste-based
insurance companies.
The appellation “Generali” un-
derlined the will on the part of
the Company to operate in all
lines of business – as explicitly
stated and explained in a no-
tice published with great em-
phasis on the announcements
page of the Osservatorio Tri-
estino, shortly after Generali’s
foundation.
From the outset, the Compa-
ny adopted a dual managerial
structure: the Central Head Of-
fice in Trieste and the Veneto
Head Office in Venice.
The task of the Central Head
Office – with premises in the
prestigious Palazzo Carciotti on
Trieste’s seafront – was to su-
pervise overall operations and to develop busi-
ness in the Austrian Empire, whereas the Veneto
Head Office – occupying part of the Procuratie
Vecchie building in Venice’s Piazza San Marco –
was to handle operations in the Lombardo Vene-
to Kingdom and in the rest of the peninsula.
Growth in the first decade was rapid: agencies
were opened in all Italian states, in the most
important cities of the Empire – from Vienna to
Prague and Pest – and in Europe’s major ports,
starting with Bordeaux and Marseille.
The expansion in Europe. After barely a few years, Generali established offices in the main cities of the Aus-trian Empire as well as in Europe’s major ports.
12
The Group’s homes
The Group’s homes
CityLife, a winning project
Through the establishment of Generali Properties (since 2008 Generali Gestione Immobiliare) – the company that manages a big portion of the property portfolio of Assicurazioni Generali and Alleanza – in 2002, the Group gave autonomy to the new real estate core business. Generali Proper-ties’ CityLife project won the international tender in 2004 for the urban redevelopment of the Milan fair district.
New head offices
New modern head offices have been built to enhance integration among different Group features, with a view to rationalising and streamlining company structures. An example is given by the Saint-Denis complex, just outside the centre of Paris, where around 3,000 employees have been working since 2003, who were formerly assigned to 26 separate units in the French capital city.
Generali Immobiliare
The Generali Group has worldwide real estate assets worth approxi-mately 23 billion Euros. Established in 2008, Generali Immobiliare, based in Paris, is responsible for developing and co-ordinating real estate activi-ties for the entire Group. All Generali real estate divisions located in the countries where the Group operates will report to the new entity.
New horizons
Between the end of the second and the beginning of the third millennium, the Group decided to seize the significant growth opportunities offered by the emerging markets of Asia and eastern Europe, where a number of new com-panies have been established, also through local partners. In the pictures: the Beijing head-quarters of Generali China and the Warsaw offices of Generali Towarzystwo Ubezpieczeń.
Implementing sustainable development
Generali Switzerland’s new headquarters in Nyon incorporate sustainability principles aimed at minimising environmental impact by employing energy saving technologies. This new dynamic and interactive environment also includes a restaurant, a crèche and a gym.
A tower in Latin America
The Generali Tower was built in 2002 in Avenida Samuel Lewis – one of the main streets in Panama City – in a residential area with a number of impor-tant embassies. The tower houses the Generali Branch in Panama and was awarded the Magno prize in the commercial facilities category by the Sociedad Panameña de Ingenieros y Arquitectos, the local engineers’ guild.
An “embassy” in Rome
Between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th cen-tury, chairman Marco Besso commissioned the building of Gene-rali head offices – decorated with the winged lion of St Mark – in the historic squares of major Italian and European cities. In particular, the Piazza Venezia building in Rome, inaugurated in 1906, houses the Representative Office, a sort of “embassy” for Generali colleagues and guests from abroad.
A consolidated presence in Europe
A number of important subsidiaries are located in west-European countries, where the Group is among leading companies on the market. This role is reflected by the prestigious buildings that house the local head offices such as the headquarters of Vitalicio and of the Austrian holding company, in Paseo de Gracia, Barce-lona, and in Landskrongasse, Vienna, respectively.
A new name for the Company14
1841
-185
0
1841 - The “Straits convention” proclaims the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles off-limits to non-Turkish warships.
1843 - Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman is performed for the first time.
1844 - The first telegraphic line between Wash-ington and Baltimore is inaugurated: messages are relayed using the alphabet invented by Sam-uel Morse.
1845 - The Irish potato famine forces millions to migrate to the United States and other countries.
1848 - Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Manifesto of the Commu-nist Party.
1849 - Victor Emmanuel II be-comes King of Sardinia after the abdication of Charles Albert, de-feated in the first Italian war of independence.
Charles Dickens’s David Cop-perfield is publishes in instalments.
Looking out
Adecade after its foundation, Generali could look
back at its performance with satisfaction. The
Company had already set up a network of agen-
cies that covered a dozen countries, and its
results were good both in terms of expan-
sion and profit. At the helm of the Com-
pany during this delicate phase was
Masino Levi, Generali’s former agent
in Padua, who had been asked to fill
the highest executive post within
the Company – that of secretary gen-
eral – in 1836. He would ultimately re-
main in that post for forty years.
However, business in the independent
states of the Italian territories was not progress-
ing well: diffidence was high and governments
did not trust “foreign” companies. In particular,
things took a bad turn in the Duchy of Mode-
na, where the licence granted in 1839 was with-
drawn following the decision to set up an insur-
The first lion. St Mark’s lion, head facing left with unsheathed sword: this was the symbol that appeared on the early policies issued by the Veneto Head Office.
The earliest plaques. Utilised prior to 1848 also in Italy, they bore the Hapsburg two-headed eagle.
After 1848. The plaques placed on property or insured buildings were different in Italy and in the provinces of the Empire.
A new name for the Company
1841-1850 15
The earliest print-outs. Starting the 1840s, the graphic layout of insurance policies gained a more commercial look: life policies bore the image of the Parcae, mythological divinities that preside over human destiny.
Masino Levi. Called by the Company to head oper-ations in 1836, Masino Levi gave a strong impetus to Generali’s activities throughout the Empire.
ance monopoly in 1841, and in the Duchy of Par-
ma, where similar laws led to the expulsion of
Generali at the end of the decade. There were
difficulties also in the Kingdom of the Two Sicili-
es, where the request put forward by the Naples
agency to extend operations also to Sicily was
rejected in 1846, and in Piedmont, where the
monopoly on fire insurance,
granted to Società Reale Mu-
tua of Turin, seriously hindered
business growth.
Abroad, the Company focused
on strengthening operations in the
German states. In 1844, the Munich agen-
cy was opened, while in central and north-
ern Germany operations were extended from
the agencies in Hamburg and Leipzig (set up in
1837) to the Kingdom of Hannover in 1847 and
to Prussia and Saxony in 1848.
In the Empire. In the map, dif-ferent colours identify the entity of claims paid in 1848 by Gene-rali in the various territories of the Austrian Empire.
A new name for the Company16
1841
-185
0
In the same year, however, a general insurrec-
tion broke out in various provinces of the Em-
pire, which changed the course of the Compa-
ny’s history. Senior officers at Generali’s Vene-
to Head Office espoused with enthusiasm Dan-
iele Manin’s republican cause, causing deep
embarrassment in Trieste. Freedom fighters as-
saulted a number of Generali buildings in Italy,
tearing down the symbol of the Company: the
imperial two-headed eagle. Consequently, the
Board of Directors decided to have the appel-
lation “austro-italiche” – which had become a
cause of embarrassment in the peninsula and
the Empire – removed from the Company’s
name. On April 8, 1848, Generali announced
that the Trieste imperial authorities had given
the go-ahead to use the simplified version of its
Company name: “Assicurazioni Generali”. Three
days later, the name change was approved by
the provisional government of the Republic of
Venice, paving the way to similar decisions in
the other Italian states.
Defending Venice
1841-1850 17
1842 - The Osijek agency (Slavonia) is authorised to underwrite fire insurance in Belgrade.
1844 - The Munich agency is opened.
1847 - The Hamburg agency is authorised to ex-tend operations in the Kingdom of Hannover.
1848 - The Company changes its name to Assi-curazioni Generali.
Operations are started in Prussia through the Königsberg agency.
1849 - After Austria’s re-occupation of Venice, three of Generali’s leading figures – Pincherle, Maurogonato and Francesconi – are forced to seek shelter abroad following their political in-volvement with Daniele Manin’s republican movement.
Looking in
Isacco Pesaro Maurogonato
Generali and the Venetian Republic. The establish-ment of the Venetian Republic by Daniele Manin was enthusiastically endorsed by numerous Generali offi-cials, who openly backed the revolutionaries by taking up key roles in the new government. Leone Pincherle, secretary of the Veneto Head Office, was appointed Min-ister of Commerce, while Isacco Pesaro Maurogonato, head of the legal department became Finance Minis-ter. Another Generali official, Daniele Francesconi (who would become head of the Veneto Head Office in 1850) was in charge of the Treviso legion, whose task was to defend Venice against attacks from the mainland.The insurrection was put down with the fall of Venice in August 1849 and forty citizens who had been closely involved with the Manin government – among whom the three Generali men – were forced to seek asylum abroad.
The 1848 revolution. In Europe, a combination of liberal, democratic and social aspirations triggered a rebellion against the established order. Early in 1848, the tensions broke into revolutionary uprisings that hit Europe’s capitals from Paris to Berlin, from Vienna to Prague. The Hapsburg Empire was seriously undermined by the independence movements, above all in Italy and Hungary: the Five Days revolt broke out in Milan, while in Venice the insurrectionists, headed by Daniele Manin, set up a provisional republican government. Within a year, however, the reactionary forces regained the upper hand, although some social achievements – the abolition of aristocratic privileges, the democratisation of institutions and the implementation of constitu-tional charters – were not swept aside.
The Five Days revolt in Milan
The Paris uprising
Investing in land and agriculture18
1851
-186
0
1851 - Louis Napoleon gains power in France with a coup d’état; the follow-ing year he is proclaimed Emperor un-der the name of Napoleon III.
Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick.
1854 - The Crimean war begins.
1857 - The Sepoy mutiny breaks out in India: the East Indian Compa-ny transfers full powers to the Brit-ish Crown, which imposes direct rule over the colony.
1859 - An oil well is drilled for the first time in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species.
1860 - Robert Burke and William Wills explore the inner regions of Australia, from South to North.
Looking out
By 1850 the economy was once again booming
in Trieste. Its port was the biggest in the Empire
and second only to Marseille in southern Europe.
The new Südbahn railway across the Semmering
connected Trieste to Vienna and opened new
horizons for the port. The city was in full flow:
there were approximately 2,000 homes with a
population of 61,000, including 2,500 Greek Or-
thodox, 3,100 Protestants and 3,400 Jews. Twen-
ty steamers belonging to the Lloyd Austriaco
shipping company linked Trieste not only to the
Mediterranean and the East but also to Switzer-
land, through the Po River and Lake Maggiore.
There were at that time 22 insurance companies
in Trieste.
Generali, too, benefited from the positive eco-
nomic climate, finally overcoming the downturn
caused by the 1848 insurrection, when the Com-
pany recorded a sharp fall in premium income and
in profits. Over the next decade, Generali increased
premiums by over two and half times, while aver-
age profit rose by 50%. Thus Generali became the
Empire’s largest insurance company.
The southern railway. In 1857, the Südbahn was inaugurated. The railway line connected the port of Trieste with Vienna and thus with the rest of the Empire, thus helping to boost the volume of trade in the city. The print depicts the Barcola viaduct, just before Trieste.
Investing in land and agriculture
1851-1860 19
True to its growth-oriented entrepreneurial vi-
sion, not only did Generali set aside significant
portions of its annual profits in reserves, but it
also made the decision to double its capital in
1856 to keep up with increased business.
Thanks to this operation, total available funds
rose to the considerable sum of 11.4 million Flor-
ins, six times as much as the capital subscribed
by the founding partners just 25 years earlier. To
diversify its growing investments, Generali be-
gan to focus on real estate. In 1851, it bought a
huge piece of property in a marshy area in the
Veneto region. A major land reclamation drive
followed: channels were dug and a large water
pumping plant was built. The outcome of the ef-
fort was Ca’ Corniani, a 1,770-hectare farm.
The highlight of this period was Generali’s in-
volvement in the setting up and management of
The first 25 years. A page from Generali’s 1856 finan-cial statement, on its 25th year of activity.
Daniele Francesconi
Ca’ Corniani. In 1851, following a decision by Daniele Francesconi, general secretary of the Veneto Head Office, Generali bought Ca’ Corniani. As is clearly visible from a map of the period (below), the property was mainly a swampy area with just a few shacks. The land reclamation work lasted a number of decades and was finally completed with the installation of a large water pumping plant in 1879 (right).
Investing in land and agriculture20
1851
-186
0
Società delle Tontine Sarde, which was later re-
named, following the unification of Italy, Socie-
tà di Tontine Italiane. The form of mutual sav-
ings called the tontine had been promoted by
the Piedmontese government in a bid to stop
the flow of capital out of the country to France,
but the initiative did not produce the results
that were expected. In particular, Generali
chose not to pursue this initiative in the Austri-
an Empire and in the rest of Italy, encouraging
more modern forms of life insurance involving
profit sharing for policyholders.
The decade closed with the momentous events
that changed the history of the nation. In 1859,
Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy said he could not The tontine. Invented in 1653 by mathemati-cian Lorenzo Tonti (in the portrait), the tontine was a system for the distribution of annuities to subscribers that proved particularly successful in France. In the picture, a tontine insurance policy issued by Società delle Tontine Sarde, which was managed by Assicurazioni Generali.
A city in full swing. The 1850s were fast-paced years for the city of Trieste, as testified in contemporary prints: the port was busy and trade flourished on the water-front. This 1854 print (below) depicts the Carciotti seafront. The Greek orthodox church – built at the end of the 18th century – is clearly visible on the right.
1851-1860 21
“remain deaf to the cry of pain that reached
him from all parts of Italy” and decided to chal-
lenge the Austrians. In 1860, Giuseppe Garibal-
di’s Redshirts liberated Sicily and the South,
while Piedmontese troops occupied Marche
and Umbria, which formed part of the Pa-
pal States. A few months later, the rep-
resentatives of all regions met in Parlia-
ment in Turin and the Kingdom of Italy
was formally established.
Independence. The second war of independence and the exploits of Garibaldi’s Redshirts allowed Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy to liberate Lombardy, the South of the peninsula and Sicily. In the meanwhile, the duch-ies of Parma and Modena, Tuscany, Emilia, Marche and Umbria rose up against their sovereigns and through plebiscites opted to join the nascent Kingdom of Italy.
1851 - Generali buys a large 1,770-hectare estate in the Veneto region. After a massive land recla-mation initiative, this will become the Ca’ Cor-niani farm.
1852 - Generali is entrusted with the manage-ment of Società delle Tontine Sarde, a newly-established company based in Piedmont.
1855 - The Company creates a pension fund for agents and employees.
1856 - Generali celebrates its 25th anniversary.
The share capital is increased from two to four million Florins.
1857 - Generali shares are listed for the first time in the Trieste Stock Exchange.
Looking in