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