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Smugglers and innkeepers: physical and social mobility in early modern Gemona (fifteenth to seventeenth centuries)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2024

Alessandro Di Bari Open the ORCID record for Alessandro Di Bari [Opens in a new window]
Alessandro Di Bari*
Affiliation:
Institut d’Histoire des Représentations et des Idées dans les Modernités (IHRIM), Lyon, France
*
Email: alessandro.dibari@outlook.it
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Abstract

This article examines the mechanics of Niederlech (a law that obliged merchants travelling between Germany and Italy to spend the night in the city, change wagons and pay a small sum of money) and German–Italian mobility in early modern Gemona. It argues that the fragility of Venetian institutions and a lack of German–Italian border controls set the scene for criminal activities, especially contraband, in which Gemona innkeepers appear to have played a significant part. It will also show that this illegal trafficking led to a new ruling class forming, a key factor in the city’s reorganization of social hierarchies.

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Research Article
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Urban History , First View , pp. 1 - 15
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© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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23 The reason is mostly to be found in the town’s lack of resources which were overly dependent on foreigners (German merchants, Tuscan and Lombard lenders): see Davide, ‘Le presenze “straniere” a Gemona’.

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25 ACG, Niederleck, 654, c. 7r–7v.

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39 ACG, Niederleck, 646, c. 3r–3v.

40 Kümin, Drinking Matters, 137–8.

41 ACG, Niederleck, 646, c. 4r–4v.

42 Ibid., c. 5r.

43 Ibid., cc. 1r–2r. On petitions in early modern Italy, see Nubola, C., ‘Supplications between politics and justice: the northern and central Italian states in the early modern age’, International Review of Social History, 46/S9 (2001), 35–56 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 The conflict between the community of Gemona and the German elite has been explored, for the medieval era, by Davide, ‘Le presenze “straniere”’.

45 ACG, Niederleck, 646, cc. 1r–2r.

46 Ibid., c. 9r–9v. On Gemona civic institutions, see G. Marchetti, ‘Gemona nel MCCC’, in Ciceri (ed.), Gemona, 71–9 at 72–4.

47 L. Sereni, ‘Le famiglie notevoli di Gemona’, in Ciceri (ed.), Gemona, 37–40 at 38–9.

48 Barozzi, Gemona e il suo distretto, 91–3.

49 Marchetti, ‘Gemona nel MCCC’, 73.

50 ACG, Niederleck, 646, cc. 10r–11v.

51 Ibid., c. 7r–7v.

52 Ibid., c. 15r.

53 Ibid., c. 17r.

54 Ibid., c. 20r.

55 Ibid., c. 19r.

56 On a side note, since this Cretan wine appears to have been a luxury product, one could assume that these exchanges helped generate new quality standards and shape a new culture of food in the city. On the culture of food in early modern Europe, see Montanari, M., The Culture of Food (Oxford, 1996)Google Scholar; Albala, K., Food in Early Modern Europe (Westport and London, 2003)Google Scholar; and Kümin, B., ‘Eating out before the restaurant: dining cultures in early modern inns’, in Jacobs, M. and Scholliers, P. (eds.), Eating Out in Europe. Picnics, Gourmet Dining and Snacks since the Late Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 2003), 71–87 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 ACG, Niederleck, 646, c. 21r–21v.

58 Ibid., cc. 12r–13r.

59 Ibid., c. 32r–32v.

60 It was common for customs officers in border areas to exploit their position for social status, bypassing the authorities and negotiating affordable rates with travellers: see Scholz, Borders and Freedom, 155–6.

61 ACG, Niederleck, 646, c. 31r–31v.

62 Ibid., c. 30r–30v.

63 Ibid., cc. 34r–35v.

64 On the importance of the bonds of allegiance and informal power practices in ancien régime politics, see Di Bari, A., I ‘recomandati di San Marco’. La pratica delle relazioni politiche (Repubblica di Venezia, secoli XIV–XVI) (Rome, 2022)Google Scholar.

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66 Marchetti, ‘Gemona nel MCCC’, 72.

67 M.M. Marin, ‘Dopo il Niederlech. La decadenza economica e sociale di Gemona tra la seconda metà del Settecento e gli inizi dell’Ottocento’, in Costantini (ed.), Glemone, 119–34.

68 Londero, ‘Aspetti dell’economia privata’, 282.