Vincenzo Florio (entrepreneur, 1799)
Vincenzo Florio (born April 4, 1799 in Bagnara Calabra , † September 11, 1868 in Palermo ) was an Italian businessman and politician .
Life
After an earthquake, Vincenzo's family moved from Bagnara Calabra in Calabria to Palermo in Sicily , where their father Paolo opened a spice shop. After Paolo Florio's death in 1807, uncle Ignazio took over the management of the still too young Vincenzo. In 1828 the trading company fell entirely to Vincenzo, who expanded and diversified it quite successfully. With some friends he also founded a small credit institute, an insurance company, a wine trade and other businesses. To save transport costs, Florio bought three small merchant ships, the Leone (416 GRT) and the two briggs Diligente (204 GRT) and Giuseppa (101 GRT). The Leone was mostly on the way between Palermo, Marseille and Liverpool , and sometimes it went as far as New York . In 1840 he was among the founders of the “Sicilian Steamship Company” (Società dei battelli a vapore siciliani) , whose first steamship, the Palermo built in Greenwich , arrived in Palermo on September 27, 1841. Since this company was unsuccessful, Florio founded the "Ignazio and Vincenzo Florio Steamship Company" in 1847 (I. e V. Florio per la navigazione a vapore dei piroscafi siciliani) , which later took over troop transports and postal services between Naples and Sicily for the government . For this reason, the postal shipping company Piroscafi Postali di Ignazio e Vincenzo Florio e compagni was founded in 1861 , which, in addition to mail, also transported freight and passengers from the mainland to Sicily and the smaller islands off Sicily. Otherwise, tramp shipping in the Mediterranean was in the foreground. Vincenzo Florio was appointed senator in 1864, four years before his death . His son Ignazio (1838-1891) expanded the company further. In 1882, the Florio shipping company merged with the Rubattino shipping company from Genoa to form Navigazione Generale Italiana , the largest shipping company in Italy at the time. One of Ignazio's sons was Vincenzo Florio (1883–1959), founder of the Targa Florio long-distance race .
Awards and honors
- Knight of the Order of St. Mauritius and Lazarus
- Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy
The Trapani airport is named after Vincenzo Florio.
literature
- Simoe Candela: Florio, Vincenzo. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 48: Filoni-Forghieri. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1997.
Web links
- Entry in the Senatori dell'Italia liberale database of the Historical Archives of the Italian Senate
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Florio, Vincenzo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Florio, Vincenzo Sr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian entrepreneur and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 4, 1799 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bagnara Calabra |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 11, 1868 |
| Place of death | Palermo |