Izvorni znanstveni članak
Piero Pantella from Piacenza and the Textile Industry of Dubrovnik in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century
Paola Pinelli
orcid.org/0000-0002-9112-3289
Sažetak
In 1417 Piero Pantella from Piacenza had started the production of woollen cloths in Ragusa, like many foreign entrepreneurs who arrived in this city attracted by the facilitations and privileges its government offered to those wishing to set up textile factories or other related activities. In Dubrovnik there was a significant presence of the people from Prato as well as Florentine citizens. A lesser number of wool manufacturers also arrived from Northern Italy (Piacenza, Rimini, Verona, Bologna, Ferrara, Bergamo, Ravenna and Mantua). The intervention of the Republic was fundamental and the government bodies took on a totally new role as entrepreneurs in wool industry, not only by financing the private enterprises by state loans, but also by taking initiatives and running risks, selecting the main figures and making management decisions. This represented a completely new activity for an early-fifteenth century state, whose ruling class, the wealth of which was mainly based on trade, looked favourably upon the situation which allowed entrepreneurs to operate efficiently and showed no resistance to business innovation. The production scheme set up in Ragusa by the immigrant wool manufacturers was quite different from the traditional ones. A new and extreme level of concentration and unification of the production process was reached, as all the preparatory work, the central phases of dyeing, cleansing and drying took place under the same roof. In Florence, at least until the seventeenth century, no attempt was made either to combine or centralize the textile production process, not even in the silk industry. Apparently, by the first half of the fifteenth century they produced 4,000 rolls of cloth a year for a total value of about 600,000 ducats and, in any case, a Ragusan factory in one year could, on the average, produce more than a Florentine factory. In the 1430s, there were at least 50 wool manufactories active in Ragusa and 300 men involved in weaving alone. If we include all the phases of manufacture, it would appear that at least 2,000 men were in some way involved in the wool making process.
Ključne riječi
Dubrovnik; Piacenza; Florence; Prato; Piero Pantella; textile industry; woolen fabrics
Hrčak ID:
104669
URI
Datum izdavanja:
24.5.2013.
Posjeta: 2.638 *