Page 94 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Matteo Di Tullio and Claudio Lorenzini

tivities from 1685 to 1875 (there is an earlier, partial register that began in
1674, and the last register is heavily deficient). The series is missing the
registers marked B and M, which began after 1674 and 1766, respectively
(asu, ab, bb. 3–6, registers a–o). The date of the beginning of the writing
each of these registers is certain, made explicit in the title, while its conclu-
sion extends beyond the beginning of the next register, as the dissolution
of debtsand creditscould extend for decades.
These books collect accounts between the family and individual persons:
usually, the paper on the recto lists assets offered to the Billiani or material
goods requested by them (the ‘having’), while the paper on the verso pre-
ceding it describes deliveries or payments in money and foodstuffs by the
Billiani to the same person (the ‘giving’). In the mid–eighteenth century
(beginning with register H, 1753), this arrangement between the giving and
the having was reversed, partly because of a new organization of account
keeping, which was much more precise and rigid in its distinction between
the giving and the having. There is in fact a second set of five ledgers, con-
sisting of eight registers called ‘journals’ which record daily every econom-
ic transaction carried out by the family, both income and expenses, and
cover a more concise interval, from 1762 to 1819 (with a large gap between
1771 and 1789: asu, ab, b. 7). These cash books are in fact the preparato-
ry documentation for the account books. The recorded transactions, once
transferred to the books, were expunged with a line running across the
paper.
As we have mentioned, alongside these registers there is additional ac-
counting documentation referring to the church and the confraternity of
St. Valentine, maintained from 1691 until 1839 (asu, ab, bb. 8–9), just as
there is a substantial set of registers relating to accounting arising from
credits granted, the livelli, from 1650 until1801(asu, ab, b.2). Exper-
tise in record–keeping, and its gradual refinement during the second half
of the eighteenth century (a common passage in agrarian accounting: see
Edwards 2011), increased through the compilation of all these accounting
instruments, both family (private) and community (public).

From the Account Books
To examine agricultural activities we rely on the account books. As ex-
plained, they contain descriptions of the economic relationships that
bound the Billiani with individual people listed there. For the most part,
these are inhabitants of Somplago and neighbouring villages but with
some significant exceptions (which we will examine).
The relationships described in these books are commercial and/or of
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