industry and production in the venetian terraferma 303
growth which impacted much of europe. this phenomenon would later
witness a further phase of significant expansion during the second half
of the 18th century, to which the Venetian patriciate also contributed, as
demonstrated by nicolò tron’s interest in schio.24
If we were to try now to sum up in a few words the evolution of the
wool industry in the Venetian terraferma in the early modern period, it
would be necessary to underline the great contrast that characterized the
wool sector in the Venetian republic at the end of the 18th century to
its counterpart three centuries earlier, particularly with respect to orga-
nization, location, product quality, and market outlets. We are undoubt-
edly faced with a profound process of reconversion marked by a nearly
ubiquitous crisis in the urban production system (with the almost total
disappearance of fabric production in the cities), which was met with a
widespread shift in manufacturing activity to numerous centers in the
foothill regions where low costs and an abundance of labor, the avail-
ability of large amounts of hydraulic energy and the proximity to large
reserves of raw materials made such activity an attractive investment.
What is certain is that, despite profound changes, wool production in the
Venetian terraferma at the fall of the republic does not appear to have
been characterized by a particular backwardness compared to other euro-
pean nations, and we can only agree with panciera when he argues that
“despite the undoubted archaism of much of the process of production,
the future of the entire sector at the end of the 18th century did not appear
particularly bleak.”25
the Silk Industry
In the late 16th century, the almost complete decline of urban wool pro-
duction was offset by a positive trend in the silk industry, whose founda-
tions in some areas of the Venetian republic, such as the regions around
Vicenza and Verona, had already been established in the previous century
thanks to the notable spread of sericulture.
24 panciera, L’arte matrice, pp. 23–38; demo, “L’industria tessile nel Veneto,” pp. 336–39;
Vianello, Seta fine e panni grossi, pp. 227–55; Francesco Vianello, “cloths for peasants and
the poor: Wool Manufactures in Vicenza countryside (1570–1700),” in Fontana and Gayot,
eds., Wool: Products and markets, pp. 411–17; Luca Mocarelli, “Manufacturing activities in
Venetian Lombardy: production specialization and the Making of a regional Market (17th
and 18th centuries),” in Lanaro, ed., at the Center of the Old World, pp. 319–27; Francesco
Vianello, “rural Manufactures and pattern of economic specialization: cases from the
Venetian Mainland,” in Lanaro, ed., at the Center of the Old World, pp. 347–61.
25 panciera, L’arte matrice, pp. 325–333.