Crescita e declino economico in una città di Antico Regime. Il caso di Brescia tra la fine del Quattrocento e la seconda metà del Cinquecento.

This study has dealt with the events of the manufacturing and commercial economy in a subject town of the Ancien Régime, from the late XVth century till to the second half of XVIth century. The purpose was to examine carefully important themes, such as the procurement of materials for manufacture, the labour market in specific contexts, the quality of sold products, the business formation created in the town. In general, the aim of the study was to build a urban model able to explain the modalities of development of growth and contraction economic cycles in a pre-industrial town. Finally, the research has individualized for the town of Brescia new micro and macro-economic data. All these new informations allow to explain with more clearness the cyclic trend of productive and commercial phases. During the last twentyfive years, the Renaissance economic history for Veneto and Lombardy Mainland has advanced remarkably in knowledge and has corrected many assumptions previously accepted. For Brescia and Venetian Lombardy, however, there weren’t studies able to insert them inside the discussion about late medieval growth, process of reconversion during the XVIth century, actions of individuals and families traced with a prosopographic style. For Brescia there was no specific archives source able to give a clear description of the situation. So, the notarial acts were used. This source is full of informations, but rich in enumerations and examples. One thousand of notarial files, written by notaries of the town, was used as main source and significant sample to pass from specific to more general description. In addition to notarial acts, fiscal, normative, accounting and legislative venetian sources were used. A research principally made on fiscal sources (“polizze d’estimo”, for example) was impossible, due to the population size of the town. In the first four chapters, the subject of economic growth and decay was studied, starting from individual manufacturing sectors, especially the processing and trade of iron, arms and armours, wool and clothes. The first and the fourth chapter are concerning about companies form, invested capitals in enterprises and minor productive sectors. The last two chapters, finally, are to the productive urban structure and to the political economy devoted, starting from the fiscal sources of 1534 (“registro” and “polizze d’estimo”) and from the venetian sources. In the sixth chapter, the events of an important merchants family of the second half of XVIth century (Polini) is described, inside the context of political excise of Venice. This research had the purpose to reach a better knowledge about growth and depression in the economy of Brescia between XVth and XVIth centuries. Beside the unsuccessful development of silk factory, the research has showed a precocious attempt of reconversion of woolen mill towards low quality productions. It has furthermore showed a good performance of the international sector of iron, arms and armours, till to the end of the XVIth century, in spite of lack of important technological innovations. Craftsmen and merchants of Brescia and Bresciano are the first in Europe to use new buildings for the iron-making, but then they finish to settle oneself into the tradition. Capitals put on enterprises increase substantially only in the second half of the XVIth century, in connection with a decrease of the number of merchants able to act on the international level. The last decades of the XVIth century are characterized by the involving of merchants of Brescia into the international credit fair.