Page 31 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Eonomy and Networks of Rural Elite Families in a Manufacturing Area

Cyprus (Zannini 2010, 147), together with the growth of the woollen in-
dustry in Venice, caused a downfall of the Vicentine woollen production.
While in 1530 the city of Vicenza produced yearly 2,000 high-quality gar-
ments and even 3,000 in 1550, this became 1,700 in 1569 and 200 in 1596
(Demo 2001a, 192–3; Panciera 1996; 2014, 140–1; 2017, 212–13). In the coun-
tryside the situation was more complicated, even if, broadly, the woollen
sector resisted the crisis better (Demo 2001a, 193). First, during the six-
teenth century the traditional production of low-quality clothes experi-
enced a technological development, allowing the production of cotonati
(literally brushed) clothes and of the so-called mezze lane, produced using
the scraps from the wool shearing and raising and other products (coats
of dead sheep, flax, hemp, or tow filaments). These were extremely low-
quality products, that spread among the poorest strata of the population
(Demo 2004, 34). Together with the crisis of the urban woollen industry,
the production of low-quality clothes in the countryside also contracted
and was partially substituted, such as in the city, by the development of the
silk industry (Demo 2004, 50; Panciera 1996, 15; 2014, 140–1). Exportations
diminished, ‘especially in Alemagna’ (Panciera 1996, 24) and in some vil-
lages, such as Marostica or Arzignano, the woollen industry was substan-
tiallydownsized;however,Schioseemstobea(partial)exception(Panciera
1996, 25), probably thanks to the development of the production of the
mezze lane for the internal market. Moreover, Schio also maintained a rea-
sonable production of low-quality clothes, which was flanked in the fol-
lowing century by the production of high-quality ones that were no more a
prerogative of the city, where their production almost disappeared. Vianel-
lo (2004a, 230) notes that in 1564 in Schio there were three raisers, three
dyers, and four apparecchiatori (clothes finishers); moreover, the tax survey
of that year notes that around 70 people were involved in manufacturing,
of whom 13 were in wool processing. In a tax survey of Schio dated 1579
(ascs, b. 21.) there is other information confirming the partial downsizing
of the manufacturing structures in the village; indeed, there were only ten
mill wheels, around forty workshops, just one chiodara, five fulling mills
(serving, therefore, around 75 looms), a purgo, and one dyeing plant. This
reshaping of the productive potential could be linked to the parallel partial
downsizing of the population of Schio (4,300 inhabitants in 1558, 4,200 in
1579, and 4,100 in 1616), and to the general critical economic conjuncture
of the woollen industry in the Venetian area. According to the Venetian of-
ficials, between 1569 and 1596 the Vicentine yearly production decreased
from 14,000 to 8,000 garments (Vianello 2004a, 231). However, we can al-

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