Scambi, parentele e prospettive generazionali. I mercanti di legname nelle Alpi orientali (secoli XVI-XVIII)

Throughout the early modern age, the eastern Alpine area was one of the lumber supply areas of northern Italy. Venice and the Republic conditioned the market as a consumer center (the population and industries), a commercial hub in the Mediterranean basin, and a state authority capable of formulating specific legislation on its forests. Among the main protagonists of the timber industry were the merchants who, thanks to the river and streams used for transport, were able to build and maintain those links between the mountains and the plains essential to support effective trade, accumulate substantial wealth, and exercise an indisputable power, both in the areas of production and in the markets of outlet. Due to the peculiarities of the market and the supply chain, the timber merchants (especially the Venetian ones) were obliged to maintain multiple residences, establish vast parental alliances (also across the Alps, in the Imperial territories), maintain relationships with various institutions, from communities to states. This strategy involved a conscious government of the time that invested the geography of their movements, the relations with the institutions, and the transmission of the knowledge necessary to give continuity to their business. From a comparative perspective, the contribution focuses on the case of four generations of the Bianchini family of Venice, reconstructing their progressive rise in the timber trade in the eastern Alpine area during the first half of the 16th century and, over a century, their sudden decline.