Essere capitale: I bilanci comunali delle città capoluogo nel Mezzogiorno napoleonico

There are several recalls that, from different historiographical viewpoints, have repeatedly stressed the interpretative potentiality of municipal budgets; despite the stiffness and the deceptive monotony of the figures, this source reflects indeed multiple aspects of the life of a community. It's an accounting instrument that is not really new for the South of Italy, but in the years of French rule it becomes the core of the governors, knowing a more complete structure, which has the effect, inter alia, to increase its heuristics capability. Using a tool that therefore seems a perfected lens, we intend to investigate the case of capital cities, that is provincial capitals, from 1810 - the year when the new system of municipal budgets was activated and on which this paper is focused - and early Forties. The further or fewer ability revealed by those centers interpreting the new status, showing us the way in which in those cities is taking place the not easy transition to the modern age, may help us to shed light on the differences between the diverse areas of continental Southern Italy, in some ways already emerged from the snapshot provided for 1810, to which the regionalization process, taking place in the country since the Napoleonic years, helps to give some depth.