Page 100 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Matteo Di Tullio and Claudio Lorenzini

ed to trade in Central Europe (Fornasin 1998), could generate economic
successes but also go through sudden downturns. The continuity of the
economic activities of firms such as the Billiani, seems to show that even
in a production environment full of restrictions, diversification and inte-
gration among economic sectors could become a successful strategy.
The exchange of foodstuffs with the Billiani is an aspect that emerges
clearly from these account books and shows how agricultural activity could
be profitable and produce surpluses for the market, no matter how restrict-
ed the communities conterminous to Somplago were. This aspect repre-
sents a significant novelty that, it can be assumed, was not confined to the
case studied but extended to various economic and family groups in the
Friulian mountains in those years. It is almost superfluous to infer from
this that the threshold of three–four months of annual productive self-
sufficiency, common moreover to several other Alpine areas (such as Lom-
bardy: see Mocarelli 2024, 21–2), was more often a rhetorical device than
an absolute value.
The pastoral activity attested by the account books is among the most
varied and extensive: the production of fodder, the slaughtering of cattle
to produce meat, their care (from castration to grazing, from milking to
cleaning the stables), and the processing of milk with the consequent pro-
duction of cheese, which allowed the Billiani to enter this market as well
in the exchanges that took place almost daily with the plains. These activ-
ities were carried out for three quarters of the year in the stables and in
the village, while for the remaining three months they were moved to the
mountain pastures, where specialized immigrant personnel were called in
to take care of everything. This phenomenon, which has been observed
and measured thanks to other sources, can also be seen in these account
books. It can be assumed, moreover, that the increase in the number of
‘firms’ with which the Billiani interacted from the 1760s is also due to this
process of immigration from the piedmont area (Barbacetto and Lorenzini
2023).
By maintaining a preeminent placement in the management of incom-
ing trade (such as foodstuffs imported from the plains) and outgoing trade
(their handicraft and agricultural productions), the Billiani managed to
perpetuate their dominant position among the families in the small vil-
lage of Somplago. This role was also fuelled by the Billiani’s credit-related
activities, which provided the collateral needed to trigger the departures
of the village’s itinerant weavers and pedlars. Again, the presence of cler-
gymen and notaries within the family group facilitated the maintenance of

98