Cristoforo Crespi

Cristoforo Benigno Crespi (18 October 1833 in Busto Arsizio – 5 January 1920 in Milan) was an Italian entrepreneur.

Biography

He was the son of Maria Provasoli and Antonio Benigno “Toni Tengitt” Crespi, a descendant of a family of textile entrepreneurs from Busto Arsizio. He was, therefore, the brother of entrepreneur Benigno Crespi. After briefly pursuing classical studies, he graduated in accounting. He finished the seminary without becoming a priest and began law school in Pavia, which, however, he had to leave for economic reasons.

Aided by his father, he converted three different facilities located in three separate municipalities, resulting in the factories of: Vaprio d'Adda (1864), Vigevano (1867) and Ghemme (1869); in the case of the Vaprio mill, he was also helped financially by Ercole Lualdi, but production at this plant was unprofitable due to the American Civil War, which resulted in a consequent “famine” of cotton, thus affecting the European cotton industry. Therefore, towards the end of 1865, Cristoforo Benigno had to relinquish the Vaprio mill to Raimondo Visconti di Modrone in spite of himself. Following hereditary separation on the death of his father (1883), the Vigevano mill passed to his brother Giuseppe and the Ghemme mill to two other brothers (Carlo and Pasquale, the latter in turn separating in 1889 to found his own spinning mill in Verona).

However, the name of the firm was retained in the name of his grandfather, Benigno Crespi. Cristoforo Benigno purchased an additional spinning mill in Baveno, which he later sold to his son Silvio Crespi.