Page 48 - Changing Living Spaces

Luca Mocarelli and Paolo Tedeschi

greater environmental damage than in other Alpine valleys.14 In Veneto,
where the characteristics of the Alpine valleys were similar to those of
Lombardy, the economic crisis depended mainly on the loss of tradition-
al foreign markets related to the fall of the Republic of Venice and, in the
second half of the nineteenth century, on the lack of demand for Alpine
products in the Venetian plain, where the industrialization process had
not yet begun. Moreover, there were fewer mines in the Venetian val-
leys than in Lombardy and, in addition, the actual taxation of real estate
(according to the new Austrian cadastre) was higher than in Lombardy,
which obviously deprived the Alpine villagers of more financial resourc-
es and prevented them from improving the quality of their production.15

Conclusion

Until the end of the eighteenth century, the communities in the Alpine
valleys of Lombardy, organized as self-governing institutions, realized a
balanced use of the available resources. They used the common real estate
to guarantee further income to the families of the villagers, especially the
poorest ones. The gradual failure of the existing social and economic equi-
librium in the nineteenth century was the result of many factors, but the
crisis began with the introduction of new taxes on real estate and its rent,
which the French and Austrian governments decided to impose in order
to improve fiscal revenues. The villagers’ quality of life also deteriorated
due to the spread of the ideology of the new bourgeoisie, whose econom-
ic and political power greatly increased by profiting from the progressive
decline of the aristocrats, especially the rentiers. New laws were enact-
ed to favour the privatization of the commons, and they were obviously
based on the concept that a private landowner exploited real estate bet-
ter than a community. Thus, bourgeois families acquired a relevant part
of the commons and, instead of improving yields, practiced overexploita-
tion of pastures and, above all, of forests, provoking negative consequenc-
es both for the families of Alpine villagers, as well as for the environment.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the area, the fruits produced and

14 About migration in Piedmontese Alpine valleys see, among others, Ramella, Ot-
taviano, and Neiretti (1986), Ramella (1984), Allio (1984), Albera (1995), and
Audenino (2019). Regarding the mines and the industrialization in Piedmont
and Liguria, see: Abrate (1960) and Nicco (1995).
15 About migration in Venetian Alpine valleys see, among others, Fornasin (1998),
Lazzarini (1998), Zalin (1998), Fornasin and Lorenzini (2020). Concerning Vene-
tian mines and manufactures during the nineteenth century, see also: Vergani
(2003).

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