This article investigates office-holding and private enterprise in eighteenth-century Sicily through a case study of the activities of Baron de Piro, a native of Malta. Based on documents held in Maltese and Sicilian archives, the article demonstrates how political developments in the kingdom both opened up and circumscribed the opportunities within which an upwardly-mobile household sought its fortune by identifying the social, political and economic contexts in which they operated. In doing so, it delivers insights into the impact of successive regime changes on the socio-economic landscape in Sicily as it passed from the Austrian Habsburgs to the Bourbons of Naples.

中文翻译：

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皇家办公室和私人企业：西西里岛一位马耳他贵族的财富，1725-50 年

本文通过对马耳他本地人 Baron de Piro 的活动的案例研究，调查了 18 世纪西西里岛的办公室和私营企业。根据马耳他和西西里档案馆中保存的文件，本文展示了该王国的政治发展如何通过确定他们经营的社会、政治和经济环境来打开和限制向上流动的家庭寻求财富的机会。通过这样做，它深入了解了西西里岛从奥地利哈布斯堡王朝到那不勒斯波旁王朝的连续政权更迭对西西里岛社会经济格局的影响。