Carlo Maria Cipolla
Encyclopedia
Carlo M. Cipolla was an Italian
economic historian. He was born in Pavia
, where he got his academic degree in 1944.
Through his study of economic history, he showed a keen interest in the causes that prompted specific economic and social situations during history, instead of focusing on facts
and figures. He was noted as well for his work on overpopulation
and his essays on human stupidity
.
and the London School of Economics
.
Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania
at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice
, Turin
, Pavia
, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
and Fiesole
) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States
as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley
. Two years later he obtained a full professorship. In 1995 he received the Balzan Prize
with this motivation "Carlo Maria Cipolla is considered by his peers as a leader in economic history who knew how to instill a spirit of innovation in the discipline. Thanks to his intellectual curiosity, dominated by the most rigorous thought and methodology, and through meticulous research of source material, he has combined the macro-historic approach with studies in micro-history in works of great originality and solidity, which cover a broad range of economic and cultural fields".
Cipolla's most popular work is a collection of two tongue-in-cheek essays on economics, first published in 1988 with the title Allegro ma non troppo ("Happy but not by too much" or, as in music, "Quickly, but not too quick").
The first essay, The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity, explores the controversial subject of stupidity
.
Stupid people are seen as a group, more powerful by far than major organizations such as the Mafia
and the industrial complex
, which without regulations, leaders or manifesto nonetheless manages to operate to great effect and with incredible coordination.
These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
As is evident from the third law, Cipolla identifies two factors to consider when exploring human behaviour:
By creating a graph with the first factor on the x-axis and the second on the y-axis, we obtain four groups of people:
Cipolla further refines his definition of "Bandits" and "Helpless People" by noting that members of these groups can either add to or detract from the general welfare, depending on the relative gains (or losses) that they cause themselves and society. A bandit may enrich himself more or less than he impoverishes society, and a helpless person may enrich society more or less than he impoverishes himself. Graphically, this idea is represented by a line of slope -1, which bisects the second and fourth quadrants and intersects the y-axis at the origin. The helpless people and bandits to the left of this line are thus semi "stupid," because they represent a net drain of societal welfare.
The second essay, The role of spices (and black pepper in particular) in Medieval Economic Development, traces the curious correlation between spice import and population expansion in the late Middle Ages, postulating a causation due to a supposed aphrodisiac
effect of black pepper.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
economic historian. He was born in Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
, where he got his academic degree in 1944.
Through his study of economic history, he showed a keen interest in the causes that prompted specific economic and social situations during history, instead of focusing on facts
Facts
Facts usually refers to the usage as a plural noun of fact, an incontrovertible truth.Facts may also refer to:*Carroll, Lewis, who wrote a poem called "Facts"*FACTS , program produced by Asia Television in Hong Kong....
and figures. He was noted as well for his work on overpopulation
Overpopulation
Overpopulation is a condition where an organism's numbers exceed the carrying capacity of its habitat. The term often refers to the relationship between the human population and its environment, the Earth...
and his essays on human stupidity
Stupidity
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'....
.
Biography
As a young man, Cipolla wanted to teach history and philosophy in an Italian high school, and therefore enrolled at the political science faculty at Pavia University. Whilst a student there, thanks to professor Franco Borlandi, a specialist in Medieval economic history, he discovered his passion for economic history. Subsequently he studied at the SorbonneSorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
and the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
.
Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania
Catania
Catania is an Italian city on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian Sea, between Messina and Syracuse. It is the capital of the homonymous province, and with 298,957 inhabitants it is the second-largest city in Sicily and the tenth in Italy.Catania is known to have a seismic history and...
at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...
, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
The Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, also known in Italian as Scuola Normale , is a public higher learning institution in Italy. It was founded in 1810, by Napoleonic decree, as a branch of the École Normale Supérieure of Paris...
and Fiesole
Fiesole
Fiesole is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a famously scenic height above Florence, 8 km NE of that city...
) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
. Two years later he obtained a full professorship. In 1995 he received the Balzan Prize
Balzan Prize
The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organisations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the brotherhood of man.-Rewards and assets:Each year the...
with this motivation "Carlo Maria Cipolla is considered by his peers as a leader in economic history who knew how to instill a spirit of innovation in the discipline. Thanks to his intellectual curiosity, dominated by the most rigorous thought and methodology, and through meticulous research of source material, he has combined the macro-historic approach with studies in micro-history in works of great originality and solidity, which cover a broad range of economic and cultural fields".
Allegro ma non troppo
The first essay, The Fundamental Laws of Human Stupidity, explores the controversial subject of stupidity
Stupidity
Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'....
.
Stupid people are seen as a group, more powerful by far than major organizations such as the Mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and the industrial complex
Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex , or Military–industrial-congressional complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them...
, which without regulations, leaders or manifesto nonetheless manages to operate to great effect and with incredible coordination.
These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:
- Always and inevitably each of us underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
- The probability that a given person is stupid is independent of any other characteristic possessed by that person.
- A person is stupid if they cause damage to another person or group of people without experiencing personal gain, or even worse causing damage to themselves in the process.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate the harmful potential of stupid people; they constantly forget that at any time anywhere, and in any circumstance, dealing with or associating themselves with stupid individuals invariably constitutes a costly error.
- A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is.
As is evident from the third law, Cipolla identifies two factors to consider when exploring human behaviour:
- Benefits and losses that an individual causes to him or herself.
- Benefits and losses that an individual causes to others.
By creating a graph with the first factor on the x-axis and the second on the y-axis, we obtain four groups of people:
- Intelligent people (top right)
- Helpless / Naive people (top left)
- Bandits (bottom right)
- Stupid people (bottom left)
Cipolla further refines his definition of "Bandits" and "Helpless People" by noting that members of these groups can either add to or detract from the general welfare, depending on the relative gains (or losses) that they cause themselves and society. A bandit may enrich himself more or less than he impoverishes society, and a helpless person may enrich society more or less than he impoverishes himself. Graphically, this idea is represented by a line of slope -1, which bisects the second and fourth quadrants and intersects the y-axis at the origin. The helpless people and bandits to the left of this line are thus semi "stupid," because they represent a net drain of societal welfare.
The second essay, The role of spices (and black pepper in particular) in Medieval Economic Development, traces the curious correlation between spice import and population expansion in the late Middle Ages, postulating a causation due to a supposed aphrodisiac
Aphrodisiac
An aphrodisiac is a substance that increases sexual desire. The name comes from Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexuality and love. Throughout history, many foods, drinks, and behaviors have had a reputation for making sex more attainable and/or pleasurable...
effect of black pepper.
Works
- Studi di Storia della Moneta (1948)
- Mouvements monétaires dans l'Etat de Milan (1951)
- Money, Prices and Civilization (1956)
- Le avventure della lira (1958)
- Storia dell'economia italiana: Saggi di storia economica (1959)
- Economic History of World Population (1962)
- Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400-1700 (1965)
- Clocks and Culture, 1300-1700 (1967), reissued 2003, with an introduction by Anthony GraftonAnthony GraftonAnthony Grafton is a historian and the current Henry Putnam University Professor at Princeton University. He is also a corresponding fellow of the British Academy and a recipient of the Balzan Prize...
- Literacy and Development in the West (1969)
- The economic decline of empires (1970)
- European culture and overseas expansion (1970)
- Economic History of Europe (1973)
- Faith, Reason, and the Plague in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany (1977)
- The technology of man: A visual history (1980)
- Fighting the Plague in Seventeenth Century Italy (1981)
- The Monetary Policy of Fourteenth Century Florence (1982)
- Allegro ma non troppo (1988)
- Between Two Cultures: An Introduction to Economic History (1992)
- Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700 (1994)