ECONOMIE ALPINE E RISORSE FORESTALI. LA PROSPETTIVA STORICA

The paper is divided into three sections. The first part provides an overview of the studies dedicated to the “wood economies” in the ancient regime. The second focuses on a case-study related to the trade between the eastern Alps and the markets of the Republic of Venice and the third part presents some archival collections (Tiroler Landesarchiv) and other documents (notarial deeds) that can be used for research on the past Alpine economies, on the diverse forms of management and exploitation of the resources and on the inclusion of the mountain areas in the trading routes of the towns in the plains. In particular the second part shows that during the course of the late Middle Ages and for all of the Modern period, the enormous natural assets of the eastern Alps exercised a strong attraction on the cities in the Italian plains, with exchanges of raw materials already being documented in the 13th century, although the documentation becomes more numerous only from the early 16th century onwards. The main markets were to be found in the Republic of Venice, especially in Verona, Padua and in the city of Venice, the last of these being one of the largest European city in terms of population. In the capital, the vicinity of the mountain catchment areas for strategic supplies of raw materials, such as iron and timber, favoured the development of the shipbuilding business and made it possible for the Venetian fleet to impose itself on the eastern Mediterranean, which led to it becoming both a maritime and commercial power. In the 15th century, the control over the trading routes between the Alps and the sea, both by river and overland, represented a determining factor in the expansion towards the Pre-Alpine and Alpine territories. The inclusion of the mountains in the city’s commercial circuits was carried out by means of the reorganisation of the complex water system of the Republic of Venice for the transport of timber and other goods, the progressive penetration of the leading city traders into the Alpine valleys, an d the creation and maintenance of a complex network of relationships with the communities and owners of the rights for use of the forests. Among the catchment areas which supplied timber, the southern and eastern parts of Tyrol and the ecclesiastical principalities of Bressanone (Brixen) and Trento were of particular importance. The grid of Alpine rivers and streams which crossed these regions all flow into the principal rivers of the Italian plains (Piave, Brenta, Adige), with the exception of the Drava, which flows into the Danube. In the pre-industrial period, the territories which depended on such river ways, both those under the jurisdictions of Trento and Tyrol and those on the other side of the border under the sovereignty of Venice, constituted an ecological model in which the use of resources took place within a macro-economic structure which presented supra-regional forms of division of labour, and the interchange between the Alps, the cities and the districts in the plains was carried out by means the exchange of natural resources, agricultural produce and manufactured goods.