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Eonomy and Networks of Rural Elite Families in a Manufacturing Area


             mo) owned, besides three workshops, a purgo and a fulling mill, both in the
             Sareo district on the main millrace (asvi, Estimo, b. 26, cc. 142 v.–143 r.,
             146 r.), and a spinning plant in the same area; for this last building Geron-
             imo Vanzo paid a rent to the Vicentine nobleman Giacomo Magrè (asvi,
             Estimo, b. 26, cc. 142 v.–143 r., 146 r.). In that year, the other manufactur-
             ing structures – the chiodare, the fulling mills, or the dyeing plant – were
             owned separately by different families. The brothers Gian Stefano and Gia-
             como Tessaro owned the chiodare, Biasia, widow of Ludovico Calderin, Pao-
             lo son of Bernardin Stecco, Rocco son of Giacomo Marangon, the brothers
             Gian Battista and Giacomo Grisolfo, and the brothers Aleardo owned the
             remaining five fulling mills, and Gianpiero son of Gianantonio Tintore (lit-
             erally ‘Dyer’) owned the dyeing plant.
               However, the case of the Dal Soglio family is also interesting; in the same
             years, they owned a fulling mill (co-owned by the brothers and members of
             the family) and at the same time one of the brothers, Paolo, was a clothes
             finisher. Therefore, this family managed both the first steps – immediate-
             ly after the washing and scouring – of the wool processing, and the final
             ones (asvi, Estimo, b. 26, c. 63 r.). These are peculiar cases, given that even
             by the 1579 tax survey there are no similar examples of concentration of
             the ownership of manufacturing structures and of this kind of ‘control of
             the supply chain,’ such as in the 1616 (ascs, b. 22.) tax survey and in the
             following ones. The Baretta family, one of the wealthy and enduring fami-
             lies of Schio, is an exception in this sense. As we observed in the previous
             pages, the Baretta family had been for a long time among the main wool
             merchants in Schio; already in July 1557, for example, the merchant Bal-
             dassarre Baretta was involved in the buying and selling of various types of
             wool (asvi, Banco del Sigillo, b. 41, fasc. ‘Liber actorum primus mei Pauli
             de Plovenis notarii sigilli’). In 1563, Sante Baretta was already labelled as a
             ‘clothes finisher,’ while Geronimo Baretta was a merchant of wool clothes
             and silk (Fontana 1985, 89). In 1616 the Baretta family owned a fulling mill,
             three mill wheels and five chiodare; in 1643 its members owned six among
             the 20 chiodare that existed in Schio and three fulling mills among six ex-
             isting in the village. The situation endured without notable changes (just
             the rise of other families, such as the Folco family, besides the Baretta) un-
             til the end of the eighteenth century. Then, in 1800, Teresa Baretta mar-
             ried Francesco Rossi, the father of Alessandro and the founder of the Rossi
             Woollen Industries (Panciera 1988, 159; 2004, 263; Fontana 1986, figure
             44d). This is a clear example of merchants that already by the beginning of
             the seventeenth century, together with the trade in textiles managed the


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