Time is money. This ancient Milanese saying predates Benjamin Franklin's famous formulation and expresses the merchant city's deep equation of productivity with value.
Milan has been a commercial metropolis since the Middle Ages, when its position at the crossroads of transalpine trade routes made punctuality and efficiency cardinal virtues. The great merchant families — Visconti, Sforza, and later the Austro-Hungarian trading houses — built their fortunes on the disciplined use of time. This proverb was already circulating in Lombard markets centuries before Franklin coined his English version, reflecting a mercantile ethos that considered wasted hours a form of theft from one's own future. The Industrial Revolution transformed Milan into Italy's manufacturing capital, and the saying took on new urgency in the textile, chemical, and mechanical industries that clustered around the city. Even today, Milan's business culture remains strikingly punctual by Italian standards, a living embodiment of this proverb. The city's fashion week, finance district, and trade fairs all operate on the principle that delay costs money.
Documented in Lombard mercantile texts of the 15th century; the Milanese phrasing predates Franklin's 1748 essay 'Advice to a Young Tradesman' and reflects independent development of the same commercial ethic.
A factory manager addressing late workers
Ragazzi, el temp l'è denée. Ogni minuto perso è un pezzo di stipendio che non guadagniamo.
Guys, time is money. Every minute lost is a piece of salary we don't earn.
A consultant billing by the hour
Non posso aspettare un'altra settimana per la risposta. El temp l'è denée, e il mio tariffario non cambia.
I can't wait another week for the answer. Time is money, and my rates don't change.
A mother urging a slow child to get ready for school
Muoviti! El temp l'è denée, anche se hai dieci anni non puoi perdere il treno.
Move it! Time is money, even if you're ten years old you can't miss the train.
A trader at a market declining to haggle
Il prezzo è quello. El temp l'è denée e non posso stare qui a discutere.
The price is the price. Time is money and I can't stand here arguing.