Page 49 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Eonomy and Networks of Rural Elite Families in a Manufacturing Area

some cases the primary sector lost part of its importance: for example, the
earnings from the selling of the kaolin and the agricultural products re-
ceived from the lands that they directly cultivated or that they rented out,
could be used by the local merchant-entrepreneurs for the payment, often
in kind, of the workforce employed in the textile sector (Demo and Ongaro
2023). Similarly, the renting out of the lands and the credit-debit relation-
ships with the peasant families were a way to strengthen the bonds with
their workers.
Thestrongbondsthatlinkedtheruralentrepreneurialfamilies–consoli-
dating and, at the same time, being consolidated by, their economic, social,
and political position – with the peasants that worked in their fields, sup-
plied them with raw silk, and weaved their wool, were flanked by analogous
bonds with the urban merchant entrepreneurs, who supplied them with
capital and international market connections. The noticeable continuity of
the rural ‘manufacturing lineages’ was, therefore, financially supported –
besides the political connections – by the urban (often former rural) fami-
lies; indeed, the strong diversification of the investments, divided especial-
ly between the grain commerce, the mining activities, and the production
and trade of textiles, was typical not just of the rural entrepreneurs, but
also of the urban ones. The rural and the urban families often participated
together in trading companies that took advantage of the urban capital, of
the knowledge of the international markets, and of the trading networks
of the urban merchants. This intersection between the rural and the ur-
ban families not only fostered the growth of the economy of Schio, but it
was a key element in assuring the many-centuried economic and political
predominance of some rural families. This is not surprising, given that, as
anticipated, many of the urban families came from the rural communities,
where they maintained a pivotal role both in political terms (being often
the Vicentine officials in charge of administrating the Vicariati), and in pa-
tronage and economic ones. Urban surnames like Schio, Magrè, Trissino,
Piovene, Caldogno, Angaran, Barbaran, and Chiuppani, clearly recall the
rural villages where these families emerged and strengthened their assets
before moving into the city – a trajectory that many families of Schio al-
so followed in the centuries of the early modern period, such as the Lodi,
Conte, and Bonagente (Ongaro 2017b).
The reason why some families, such as the Toaldo, remained for cen-
turies in their home village, even maintaining a strong economic stand-
ing, while others asked for citizenship, is of now without an answer. What
we can say is that the urban-rural relationship is considerably more com-

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