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Francesco Mengotti (1749-1830 ) was an Italian Economist,Author and Politician. He was a member of the Order of the iron crown and was notable for his analysis on the important validity of the principle of economic liberty as the criterion according to which all economic systems should be organised,also a concept of development through which this would occur via an evolutionary process by stages that require agriculture,viewed in the shape of intensive cultivation,to play the leading role in every phase of the economic history of a nation. He was a member of the ACCADEMIA DELLA CRUSCA since 28th of January 1917.

Early life
Francesco Mengotti was born in Fonzaso, a municipality in the Province of Belluno in the Italian region Veneto to Ignazio and Caterina Villabruna, noble of the nearby Feltre on (15 September 1749).

He initially studied in the seminary of Feltre, then passed to the University of Padua where he graduated in law in 1771. During the academic period, however, he showed considerable versatility of interests, also attending lectures in mathematics, physics, medicine and theology.

Initially he thought to settle in Venice to exercise the legal profession,favored by his uncle Giovanni Battista Bilesimo who was a consultant in iure of the Serenissima and teacher of the seminary of Padua. But his irritable character precluded this profession and, returning to his native town, confined himself to being a jurist.

In 1784 he was found at the service of the patricians Barzizza as tutor. That same year he participated in a competition held by the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres of Paris, on the theme "The situation of trade with the Romans, from the last Punic war to the rise of Constantine to the Empire". When two years later (November 14, 1786) the work was judged the winner, with a total prize money of 500 francs, the success of Mengotti who was unknown both abroad and at home aroused surprise. The text of Mengotti, translated into Italian, was published in Padua in 1787 with the title ‘Of the trade of the Romans from the first Punic war to Constantine’

The thesis argued that the Romans, rich and powerful, had always neglected trade for pride, the fundamental basis of the development of the States, to the point that this could be considered the main cause of their decadence. In essence, Mengotti, inaugurating the quantitative analysis in historical-economic phenomena, stated that the Roman trade balance in the imperial period was deficit towards foreign countries.

After this event, Mengotti quickly became one of the protagonists of the Veneto scientific world: he became a member of the Accademia Patavina of sciences, letters and arts and earned the appreciation of the major exponents of the Padua university; he was also called by the government to participate in a group of consultants with the aim of drawing up a new general trade regulation.

In 1792 he won a new competition promoted by the Accademia dei Georgofili, also in this case on mercantilism. The essay presented, Reasoning of the Natural Freedom of the Trade in Unbleached Genres, was a great success and was immediately published. In later editions he appeared with the title Il colbertismo and in fact tended to refute the theories of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, arguing that economic freedom could only be guaranteed by the full autonomy of initiative.

After the fall of the Republic of Venice and the establishment of the Municipality by the French, he was very active in politics, distinguishing himself in the Finance Committee as a great reformer. Faithful to his economic theories, he firmly supported a stable connection between Venice and the Mainland,he took part in that movement that intended to place the former capital in a federation of free Italian cities, fully autonomous.

From May to July 1797 he took part in an embassy that was sent to Milan ,where Napoleon Bonaparte was. In fact, despite the Treaty of Campoformio, Mengotti became a member of the Legislative Body of the Cisalpine Republic .He later resigned on December 17 of the same year to return to Feltre , in the Veneto which became Austrian. From 1803, with the new organization of the provinces, he returned to public life but held burdensome positions that were not very stimulating, perhaps due to his participation in the Democratic Municipality. He was thus "added" to the Treviso finance inspectorate, but the following year the governor Ferdinand von Bissingen , perhaps advised by Pietro Bellati , wanted him at the head of the Central Commission for the census.

Together with the same Bellati he then became responsible for the land registry project wanted by Austria. The operation was not easy, due to both the rural and mountain communities, which feared a further worsening of their conditions, and of the landowners, who did not intend to renounce their ancient privileges. When the Veneto passed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the land registry was still incomplete and will be finished only under the Lombard-Veneto Kingdom in 1846.

In these years he also dedicated himself to the design of a free port to be set up at the Arsenale. However, consistent with his line of thinking, Mengotti argued that the infrastructure should have been a tool to promote free and dynamic commerce, especially with foreign countries, not a source of Revenue. The project did not materialize: it will still be necessary to wait for the Lombard-Veneto period to see it built in 1830, and not at the Arsenale, but on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

The editing of the Cadastre continued even when the Veneto passed to the French and this led to accusations of opportunism and flattery. It was for this reason that he was appointed inspector general of the Napoleonic Finance and in 1808 he assumed the burden of reorganizing the finances in the departments of the Italian Kingdom that had been of the Papal State.

Works
Some of the papers written by Francesco Mengotti include ‘Of the trade of the Romans from the first Punic war to Constantine’ with various editions published in Venice 1797, 1803, 1841; Milan 1802-03, 1804, 1821, 1829; Florence 1828; Leipzig 1833; Rome 1967; Avezzano 1984). His other writings include Education to the free people of Venice pronounced on 17 May by the citizen Francesco Mengotti (Venice 1797); The Oracle of Delfo (Milan 1817); Dissertations (1829); Of the afforestation of the mountains (Turin 1869). Also his,"Essay on running waters" (1810-12) which obtained the annual literary prize of the Academy of 1813.

Later life
After his assignment as inspector general of the Napoleonic Finance,he went to Milan where he joined the ruling class of the Kingdom. He was appointed knight of the iron crown, elector of the Collegio dei Dotti and senator for the Department of the Piave  ; he was also given the title of Count and entered various academies.

The anti-Napoleonic uprisings, which saw the death of the minister and his friend Giuseppe Prina, also directly affected Mengotti. The crowd entered the Senate and ransacked its rooms, even destroying a manuscript of political economy nearing publication.

On the return of the Austrians, he remained in politics as an advisor to the new government,although the Chancellery had branded him 'a talented man, but troubled and restless'.

He died in Milan on 5 March  1830  at the age of 81, his remains were taken to Fonzaso on 13th May where a solemn funeral was held for him.