Mercedi, venalità, cumuli e rendite : Magistrature e uffici nello Stato di Milano nella prima metà del XVIII secolo

This work aims to provide an overview of how the offices of the State of Milan functioned at the beginning of the 18th century. To this end, we have drawn on the description left to us by a high magistrate who described the administrative structure of Milan, listing the names of all those who held office. It highlights phenomena linked to venality, heredity, and the concentration of offices in a few hands. This system was an important factor in the consolidation of sovereign power: office holders, their relatives, clients, and substitutes formed a compact bloc, which had a common interest in perpetuating an apparatus in which they had invested their resources and from which they derived substantial income.