During the nineteenth century, foreign entrepreneurs dominated the entrepreneurial scene around the Apulia, a region of South Italy, both in the textile and the mechanical sectors. At the same time, a migration toward European industrial excellence centres originated from this region. Important examples of the latter migration trend are the experiences of the young son of a cloth merchants’ family, who migrated to Manchester in 1875 to complete his formation as a textile entrepreneur, and of Prof. Antonio Sansone, an Italian professor at the Manchester Technical School.

This paper follows the development over the centuries of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Bari: from its institution – an initiative by the local Chamber of Commerce – the School of Commerce, with its Banco Modello in 1876, to the founding of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce in 1935, and to its later transformation into the Faculty of Economics in the final years of the last century. Over such a long period, the teaching offered, faculty site, as well as the teaching and administrative staff have been expanded in order to cope with the ever increasing numbers of students enrolling, and the numerous legislative reforms which have marked the history of Italian university education following the second world war.