La mobilità territoriale della ricchezza finanziaria. La Lombardia e il confine italo-elvetico (1861-1980)

This article examines the territorial mobility of financial wealth in Lombardy over the long term, focusing on the Italian-Swiss border area and the Milan–Como–Lugano axis between 1861 and 1980. Drawing on both public and private archival sources as well as existing historiography, the study reconstructs the evolution of cross-border capital flows between Italy and Switzerland and highlights their structural transformations. During the Nineteenth century, capital movements were largely bidirectional, fostered by a highly permeable border and strong economic and banking integration. In the Twentieth century, particularly after the First World War, a significant shift occurred: Switzerland, and especially the Canton of Ticino, increasingly emerged as a destination for Lombard and Italian capital, driven by monetary instability, fiscal pressures and political uncertainty in Italy. The article argues that the political border did not hinder financial mobility but instead created differential rents and arbitrage opportunities, contributing to the rise of the Ticino financial centre and profoundly reshaping the economies of the border regions.