The absent owner. Things and people in situations of depopulation. A diachronic and comparative perspective

Résumé En

This paper draws a diachronic comparison between contemporary France and premodern Italy by focusing on the consequences that the absence of people entails in the management of resources. We address two "crisis" situations (emigration and indebtedness, mortality crisis) that lead people to abandon their patrimony and force institutions to intervene to secure private assets, in particular real estate. First, we cover the question of “repudiation of inheritance” in 20th century France. In many deindustrialized towns we discover a growing phenomenon: the refusal to succeed one’s parents. The heirs resist to social decline abandoning their negative inheritance. Then, we examine the problem of “vacant goods” in 17th century Northern Italy, when the plague of the 1630s caused the disappearance of up to 50% of the population in some territories, causing the disappearance of entire families and leaving their fortunes without an owner. In this comparative approach, we ask: how communities and states guarantee reciprocal obligations, assert the rights of creditors and/or debtors, and try to restore the economic and social "good order"?By combining the analysis of judicial and administrative files, transcription of oral testimonies, and interviews with public officials, locally elected representatives and neighbours, we question this domino effect (depopulation, lack of responsible owners, abandonment and ruin) on the community and the state.