BALSAMO, PAOLO. - Priest and economist, b. at Termini Imerese on 4 March 1764, d. 4 Sept. 1816. Having entered the archiepiscopal seminary of Palermo, he was ordained a priest and took a lively interest in the agrarian problems of his time, and particularly in those of Sicily.
After having stayed in various European countries, he returned to his homeland with a vast store of theoretical and practical knowledge, which earned him, in 1791, appointment to the chair of agriculture at the R. Accademia of Palermo. A follower of the free-market principles of A. Smith, B. subjected the Sicilian agrarian legislation then in force to profound criticism in his lectures, maintaining the need to abolish every restriction. He subsequently set forth these ideas in his Memorie economiche e agrarie riguardanti il regno di Sicilia (Palermo 1803). In 1806 he was appointed to the chair of Rural Economics and Commerce at the University of Palermo.