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From agriculture to silk: the economy from the end of the Medici dynasty to Italian Unity
Starting from the end of the 18th century and above all during the 19th century, a series of factors determined the development of silk manufacturing in Loro. The revival of trade promoted by the 18th-century grand-ducal initiatives, which led to reinstating the old route of the via Cassia, involved a general revitalising of the area of the Valdarno. The growth of commerce and trade, in particular in the town of Montevarchi, acted as a stimulus on the economy of Loro. The demographic expansion during the second half of the 18th century continued and intensified during the 19th century. In the Commune of Loro, there was a 20% increase in the population between 1861 and 1901, passing from 4,786 inhabitants in 1861 to 5,749 inhabitants in 1901. Thanks to the availability of a labour force and to an active market, mulberry-growing, the raising of silkworms, and silk-reeling began to represent profitable businesses, and attracted investments for the realisation of silk factories.
Raising silkworms
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The expansion of Florentine silk manufacturing, starting from the second half of the 18th century, stimulated the diffusion of the breeding of silkworms also in areas that until then had had nothing to do with their cultivation. The zone of the upper Valdarno,
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which was particularly suitable for raising mulberry trees, constituted one of the areas of major expansion. Differently from mulberry-growing and the raising of silkworms, in the Tuscany of the modern age, the reeling of silk was not a rural activity, but an operation of an industrial nature (Malanima, 1990: 100).
In 1870, Felice Davitti obtained permission from the Commune of Loro to convert a house that he owned in the market square of Loro into a building for commercial use. Thus, from 1871 on, the Commune began to gather information on the raising of silkworms and the cocoon market of Montevarchi (Source: Historical Archives of Loro Ciuffenna, Protocollo delle deliberazioni del Consiglio Comunale, 1870 and 1871). Also, from 1880 on, the Commune provided for inserting in the Minutes of its official actions the lists of the quantities of cocoons and the relative prices, drawn up by the Chamber of Commerce and Arts of Arezzo.
At the time, two spinning mills were unquestionably in operation in Loro, both of them belonging to the Davitti family and which, according to some estimates, worked up to 30,000 pounds of cocoons (883 quintals) (Zuccagni, 1852). The "Rapporto della Pubblica Esposizione dei Prodotti di Arti e Manifatture Toscane", drawn up in 1847 by the Board appointed to examine manufactured products and award prizes, defined the Davitti silk to be of particular worth: "very elastic, gleaming, uniform in colour and thread, and beautiful and first-rate in all its other aspects". Starting from the final decades of the 19th century, more well-founded data exist regarding the quantities of the production of silkworm eggs in the territory of Loro, which the Commune saw to sending to the Chamber of Commerce and Arts in Arezzo.
In 1894, the first information on a spinning mill was atteste that of Ferdinando di Lorenzo Magnozzi (Historical Archives of Loro Ciuffenna, Minute- Atti vari, 1893-1894). In February 1893, he embarked upon the works for "building the new factory for use as a spinning mill, located at the extreme North of his garden in Loro", that provided for extending the embankment over the Ciuffenna torrent and the shifting and rectification of the road that gave access to the factory from Piazza della Fonte in Loro.
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The Magnozzi-Del Vita spinning mill, at present the seat of the Recreational Club of Loro
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Not very much information is available on the spinning mill that rose in Via Pratomagno, in the location of what today is Loro's Recreational Club. However, it is certain that it was no longer active after 1898. In fact, the list of manufacturers and workers in the Commune of Loro Ciuffenna of 1899 registered the presence of a single spinning mill: the Brogi mill, that belonged to Luigi Brogi, located at Ferriera (currently the seat of a tourist residence). The building had been bought by Brogi in 1890 with the earnings of his work as a mill hand (this information was obtained from the testimony of a descendant of the family, Liliana Brogi). According to the municipal list, at the time only three adult female workers and 3 female workers younger than 21 were employed by Brogi.
The Brogi spinning mill at Ferriera |
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The Brogi spinning mill in Loro |
Therefore, at the end of the 19th century, with respect to the image given by the Maire (mayor by imperial appointment) during the years of the French domination at the beginning of the century, according to whom "the main commerce of the village" (Sisi, 1974: 82) was that of agricultural products, and the only manufacturing consisted of the women's activity of the art of "spinning", the economic and social reality of Loro showed signs of evident change.
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