Page 43 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Eonomy and Networks of Rural Elite Families in a Manufacturing Area

silk and trade in grains and in other products for a [yearly] earning of 100
ducats’ (asvi, b. 26, c. 28 r.). The characteristics of the Lodi’s business are
particularly relevant, both because they intersect with the development
of the silk sector in Schio, and because they are emblematic of the strong
connections between the rural families and the urban noblemen; as antici-
pated, Giuseppe Lodi was the tenant of the spinning plant described in the
1579 tax survey (probably the same building that in 1541 was owned by his
father Ambrogio), and he paid a rent for it to the Vicentine nobleman Gi-
acomo Magrè. But the relationship between these two entrepreneurs was
not just a credit-debit one. Indeed, on 18 July 1575 the notary Gian Battista
Dal Ferro drew up an agreement for a trading company between Giacomo,
son of Stefano Magrè, and Giuseppe Lodi, son of Ambrogio. The compa-
ny was supposed to last three years, but it broke up after just two even
though ‘this company and business of silk and other products has been
very productive and lucrative for both the contractors.’ Because of the dis-
solving of the company, Giuseppe Lodi should have refunded 3,000 ducats
to Giacomo Magrè, but the contractors agreed that this capital would re-
main as a support for the Lodi trading activities, in exchange for the pay-
ment of yearly interests to Giacomo Magrè (asvi, Notarile, b. 866, 5 July
1575). Subsequent documents drawn up by the same notary demonstrate
the emergence of disputes about the refunding of the debt, at least until
the 1580s. Besides this, it is important to underline that the involvement
of Giuseppe Lodi in the silk sector – an activity probably inherited from
his father – was supported by the capital of a Vicentine nobleman with rel-
evant economic and political interests in the area, as the shooting event
described in the previous pages testifies.
Another deed dated 5 June 1574 leaves no doubt that Lodi was involved
in silk spinning and twisting in Schio. On that day, indeed, the notary Dal
Ferro drew up an agreement between Giuseppe Lodi, ‘merchant in Schio,’
and a representative of Aquilina, widow of the Venetian nobleman Alvise
Boldù. Aquilina asked for permission for her and her sons and nephews to
buildamill wheelinthe millrace ofSchio inaplace ‘infront of thebuilding
where Giuseppe practiced silk twisting in the Sareo district’ (asvi, Notar-
ile, Notaio DalFerro, b.8683, 5June1574).Furthermore, whenGiuseppe
Lodi asked in 1581 to become a citizen, in the request for citizenship he
wrote that he and his father Ambrogio, after their arrival in Schio at the be-
ginning of the century, ‘practiced honourably various trades, [...] without
ever being involved in mechanical activities, but being honourable mer-
chants.’ In that manner, Lodi goes on, ‘I settled in that place [Schio] the

41