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Giulio Ongaro and Edoardo Demo
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Looms
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Fulling struct.
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Purging struct.
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Chiodare Dyeing plants
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Mill wheels
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Figure 1.5 Manufacturing Structures in Schio (1541–1794)
Notes Variations on the index (= 1) corresponding to the average value of each item over
the period 1541–1794. asvi, Estimo, b. 26; ascs, b.21, 22,24, 27,28; Anagrafi di tutto lo Stato
della Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia 1786; Fontana 1986; Panciera 1988; Panciera 1996.
tion was 2,000 yearly), which estimates at around 30 looms in activity in
the period 1740–1746, 55 in the mid-eighteenth century and 80 in 1758
(Panciera 1988, 18, 34–6, 52; 2004, 258). As anticipated, the relevant change
was the production of mezzetti alti (medium-quality clothes that imitat-
ed the Flemish ones) and of the tessuti ad uso estero (literally, ‘clothes like
the ones produced abroad’) (Panciera 2004, 256–8): around fifty mezzetti
alti were produced between 1711 and 1716, 250–350 in the 1730s, and 900–
1,000 in the period 1740–1746, reaching 3,400 garments in 1758 (Panciera
1988, 34–5, 48; 2004, 258). This significant increase in production was due
to the creation of the ‘privileged industry’ of the Venetian entrepreneur
Nicolò Tron, established in 1718, who in the first years of activity of the
factory already employed more than 600 workers and some English tech-
nicians (Tron had been the ambassador of the Republic of Venice in Eng-
land). The Tron industry, which from 1739 also involved Novello Alberti
from Schio, the Venetians Tavelli and Pezzi, and the Germans Conigh and
Stahl in a society, introduced relevant innovations in the local woollen in-
dustry, first, as anticipated, the production of the tessutiadusoestero, then,
at the end of the century, the use of the Kay’s shuttle (Panciera 1988; 2004,
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