Innovation in the Capital City. Central Policies, Markets, and Migrant Skills in Neapolitan Ceramic Manufacturing in the Eighteenth Century

The chapter challenges the traditional representation of Eighteenth century Naples as a parasite city. The case of innovation in ceramics shows an example of technical innovation that occurred in the context of the capital city, and indeed, had in it its raison d'être. Innovation was made possible by the accumulation of human capital and technical knowledge. Naples drew on an inexhaustible reservoir of skilled workers from the provinces who, from the sixteenth century onwards, promoted the development of the ceramics industry. The development of this craftsmanship with its original style features was exactly the product of the mix of styles and skills that were brought by artisans from different backgrounds. Naples, as the seat of a court with its widespread consumption of luxury, a port city and home to communities of foreign merchants, also attracted artisans and artists from abroad, from the areas of excellence of ceramic production. It was a place of concentration of knowledge and information. The attraction the city exercised over skilled craftsmen was not hindered at an institutional level; rather it was traditionally favoured from the sixteenth century onwards as Philip II made a clear policy of welcoming foreigners and not restricting the flow of people. Naples was a world city because it was a gateway to the Kingdom for the international goods from the sixteenth century onwards. It reflected consumption patterns that were increasingly oriented to foreign tastes, and not by chance, this forced innovation towards an imitation of styles and products from the East. In this context, the sovereign experiment was just one attempt to reproduce something that had already been established in general tastes and in the market. The success of this innovation was mainly due to the huge investment that the monarchy, like a big corporation ante litteram, made in research, and that no private entrepreneurs in the kingdom could have done. In order to introduce innovation, the monarchy used the same mechanism that traditionally had served the ceramic industry: migration. In the eighteenth century, the ceramics industry intensified and the movement of skilled artisans multiplied throughout the peninsula and beyond. In the pursuit of excellence, the monarchy used artisans from abroad with previous experience of testing porcelain. The urban location of the factory of Capodimonte refers to the city's role as a site of power and to the factory as a tool for political representation. However, Capodimonte produced a multiplier effect in the private world of manufacturing. It expanded the market and the taste for porcelain and for lower-cost imitations, though made with the traditional faience. It created new artisans who were more or less specialized. After the first closing of Capodimonte, the private faience factories, again operated by immigrant artisans, flourished. They provided inspiration and exchanged labour and ideas with the new factory of Capodimonte, and engaged in the attempt to emulate the English style of white ceramic. Innovation continued to be based on the emergence of new tastes and on the circulation of human capital, both mechanisms that the capital city, and notably Eighteenth century Naples, efficiently triggered.