Bandini, Sallustio Antonio (1677-1760)

Encyclopaedia of the social sciences, editor in chief Edwin R.A. Seligman, New York, The Macmillan Company, vol. II, 1930, p. 415

BANDINI, SALLUSTIO ANTONIO (1677-1760), Italianeconomist. After taking his degree in jurisprudence at the University of Siena he gave lectures there from 1700 to 1702. In 1705 he took holy orders and in 1723 became archdeacon. Shortly before his death he was elected president of the AccademiadeiFisiocritici.

About 1737 Bandini wrote his one work, Discorsoeconomico, which circulated in manuscript until it was finally published in Florence in 1775 (best modern edition, Siena 1877). The peace loving archdeacon had been roused to indignation by the ruin into which the MaremmaSenese, a marshy region covering about two fifths of Tuscany, had been plunged by misgovernment. After a vivid description of the social and economic evils produced by bad legislation Bandini proposed as remedies: first, the absolute and permanent freedom of grain exports and the abolition of price fixing by public authorities; and second, the replacement of the many obsolete and mischievous taxes by a single tax on the produce of land.

On the basis of the Discorso many writers have erroneously described Bandini as a precursor of the physiocrats and free traders. His general theoretical outlook was borrowed from Boisguilbert and he partook of the prejudices of his time against free importation of grain as depriving the country of money. His real significance for liberalism lies in the fact that the Discorso was ultimately responsible for the abolition of the particular restrictions which had burdened Tuscany for centuries. Thanks chiefly to PompeoNeri, an official in the Finance Council of Florence, the essay found favor with the first prince of the House of Lorraine, Francis II, who in 1738 granted the Maremma freedom of grain exports for a limited period, which was extended from time to time. Finally in 1775 Peter Leopold incorporated Bandini’s other proposals into his reform policy, and the Maremma entered upon a period of prosperity.

Consult: Note e ricordi intorno a Sallustio Bandini e al suo discorso sulla Maremma di Siena,ed.  by F.  E.  BandiniPiccolomini (Siena 1880); Gobbi, Ulisse,La concorrenza estera e gli antichi economisti italiani (Milan 1884p. 114-18).