Page 38 - Changing Living Spaces

Luca Mocarelli and Paolo Tedeschi

In fact, the latter influenced the management of the common real estate
and the distribution of its fruits; they wanted to make money, of course,
but they also wanted to ensure social peace in the community and there-
fore increased the share of fruits for the poorest families. Moreover, they
usually controlled the local credit system, since they also managed, to-
gether with the local clergy, the local ecclesiastical institutions that lent
money. Small church offerings, rich donations, and legacies related to real
estate enabled the ecclesiastical institutions to help poor families, but
also to finance artisans and, in general, all the people who lived in the vil-
lage and ran workshops or other economic activities. Since the villagers
all knew each other, it was difficult to remain indifferent to the livelihood
problems of the poorest families and the financial needs of the artisans.
Loans had very favourable conditions, because the goal was to improve
the quality of life of the inhabitants and to ensure social peace; they al-
lowed the richest families to increase their prestige and gain recognition
and power in the village.
The IPe and the richest families’ attitudes allowed the Alpine villag-
es to maintain a good economic and demographic equilibrium during the
eighteenth century, especially in the Alpine valleys that belonged to the
Republic of Venice. This was also favoured by low taxes and high tariffs
to protect local production. Moreover, the wide range of handmade goods
produced in these valleys (firearms, cutlery, swords, agricultural tools,
frying pans, sheet metal and gutters, steel and ploughshares, depend-
ing on the specialization of the village) allowed diversification of sup-
ply on international markets while limiting competition between Alpine
villages.
These positive results were also based on: (a) a division of firewood and
charcoal between the iron and brass manufacturers and the inhabitants
of the village, which privileged the needs of the workshops; (b) the con-
tinuous improvement of the quality of the workshops’ production, which
also depended on new investments made possible due to the favourable
conditions of the local credit market; and (c) a strong link between the
latter and the real estate market, since the land was used as a guarantee
to obtain financing by the local ecclesiastical institutions.3

3 About the credit and real estate markets in the Alpine valleys, see the case of
Eastern Lombardy: Tedeschi (2007; 2008).

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