Florence in 1427. The people at the top of the ladder are members of the city’s powerful guilds, while those at the bottom are beating, cleaning and washing raw wool.
Fast-forward almost 600 years and while the jobs may have changed, the people have not. The very same families are still on top.
Researchers at the Bank of Italy have used surnames (which are relatively region-specific) as a proxy to inspect the fortunes of Florentine families since the 1427 census. They found the top-five earning surnames in 2011 were also the elites six centuries ago, when they were lawyers or members of the wool, silk and shoemaker guilds. The researchers found evidence of dynasties in some elite professions, such as banking and law.
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