Page 28 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Giulio Ongaro and Edoardo Demo

Figure 1.4 The Sareo District in 1737
Notes Map by G. B. Molin; the arrows indicate the dyeing plants, the structures for the
fulling and purging of the wool, the mills, and so on (Bertoli and Ghiotto 1985, 23).

1985, 405; 2004, 261), but also inside the village, even if still in a context
of home industry, without a centralization of this first step of wool pro-
cessing. Spinning remained located in the peasant houses during the mid-
eighteenth century as well, when other parts of the wool processing (such
as weaving) were centralized, ‘because of technological limits.’ In contrast,
the dyeing and fixing of the clothes were already located in the centre of the
village ‘because they required [...] high skills and the use of machineries’
(Panciera 2004, 261).
Therefore, even if Oltraponte was not the district where the main pro-
duction buildings were located, it was in any case an area full of manufac-
turing structures; however, the heart of manufacturing in Schio was the
Sareo district,where themainmillrace(the Roggia maestra)flowed (figure
1.4). According to these descriptions, the economy of Schio appears to be
far from ‘rural,’ at least if we intend this word as a synonym of agriculture,
and the inhabitants of the Vicentine village were widely employed as arti-
sans and apprentices, such as in the urban workshops.
The secondary sector was so important that another trial, dated 1586,

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