Verri, Pietro (1728–1797)

Abstract

Italian economist, administrator and philosopher, Verri was born in Milan in 1728, educated in Rome and Parma, served with Austria in the Seven Years War and at this time was introduced to the study of economics by General Henry Lloyd (Venturi 1978, 1979). His economic writings of the 1760s, such as Elementi di Commercio (1760) and the dialogues on monetary disorders in the State of Milan (1762), led to his appointment to a number of positions in the Austrian civil service in Milan. His administrative achievements include the abolition of tax farming (1770) and lowering and simplifying the tariff (1786). From 1764 to 1766 he edited with his brother Alessandro the periodical Il Caffè, which attracted contributions on economics from Beccaria and Frisi as well as himself (Verri 1764). His most important economic publication, Reflections on Political Economy, appeared in 1771, went through numerous editions and was translated into French, German and Dutch and more recently into English. Other economic works on monetary and trade questions, including his 1769 pamphlet advocating freedom of the domestic corn trade, contribute to his reputation as a most important 18th-century Italian economist (McCulloch 1845, pp. 26–7). More recently he has been noted for inspiring early developments in mathematical economics (Theocharis 1961, pp. 27–34). He died in 1797.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume