Page 183 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Innkeepers in Tyrol

Merano. Family and business continuity was by no means rare, nor was it
a matter of course. In this case, the great-grandfather Kaspar Hofer had
been in the same business almost a hundred years earlier, as had the gen-
erations after him. Andreas Hofer was not only an innkeeper; he also trad-
ed in wine, brandy and salt, as well as cattle and horses, along routes that
stretchedfromthe InnValleytoVeronaandBergamo. Tradeinthese goods
– as well as grain and leather – was open to the local population. Claudia de
Medici’s privilege of 1635, which was intended to increase the importance
of the Bolzano trade fairs, explicitly excluded them from the jurisdiction
of the mercantile magistrate (Sprung 1981, 35, § 2, reference to the copy
of the privilege). Andreas Hofer was therefore also active as a freight for-
warder and muleteer. In 1794, he owned 16 horses, so it can be assumed
that he himself ‘transported, collected and delivered most of the goods.’
However, he also worked closely with others, acting as a middleman and
usingnegotiators (Oberhofer 2009,171–3,196–7,200–3,206–18,233).Trav-
elling north from the Passeier Valley, the Timmelsjoch Pass (2,474 m) and
the Jaufen Pass (2,094 m) lead into present-day North Tyrol. The shortest
route between Merano and the Brenner Pass was over the Jaufen Pass.
In contrast to a common marriage pattern, Andreas Hofer’s wife, An-
na Ladurner, did not come from an innkeeper’s family. She did, however,
come from a well-to-do farm in Algund, near Meran, in the Passeier Valley.
Her other relatives in Algund were influential and also involved in the wine
trade with innkeepers in the Vinschgau, which ran eastwards into Switzer-
land (Oberhofer 2009, 142). She was 23 when she married; he was 21. The
comparatively young age can be explained by the fact that his parents had
already died. The marriage contract states that she was illiterate. Never-
theless, it can be assumed that she ran the inn with him, as Andreas Hofer
travelled a lot and was executed in 1810.
No records or account books of his extensive business activities have sur-
vived, only a few invoices. An earlier inventory of the inn mentions several
writing tablets, which were presumably also used to write down outstand-
ing sums in the inn (Oberhofer 2009, 186). Isolated conflicts are document-
ed that indicate complex payment and debt arrangements in connection
with Andreas Hofer’s business. According to his testimony in court, for
example, he had handed over a letter containing money to a grocer from
St. Leonhard in the Passeier Valley, his place of residence. The grocer had
been instructed to deliver the letter to the well-known Mondschein Inn,
the Moonlight, in Bolzano, where a farmer from the Fiemme Valley in
present-day Trentino was to collect it. However, the money never reached

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