On the German Alpine Inhabitants of South Tyrol: Popular Character and Industry

Appendix.

Statistics.

On the German Alpine Inhabitants of South Tyrol and the Adjacent Venetian Territory. (Continuation.) 4/7

III. Popular Character and Industry.

The inhabitants of Folgaria and others, as well as those of Lavarone, betake themselves to the Italian and German Etsch Valley, where they build dry-stone walls to shore up building land or to dam rivers, a work in which they are very ingenious, assembling stones of any size, provided they can be moved, without seemingly great exertion of strength, in a truly admirable manner that is both durable and pleasing to the eye. They possess the art of dressing even the hardest round granite stones so skillfully that they receive an almost perfectly flat front on all sides, in order to set them into the front of the wall, and they place these stones of various sizes so cleverly that one hardly notices the gaps between them. The inhabitants of Lavarone, united in numerous companies, undertake important enterprises amounting to several thousand florins, not only for dikes and walls, but also, if the occasion arises, to lay out new mountain roads. They execute these undertakings so honorably that they are always called upon first for such enterprises.

Several move to Italy with their families and herds at the onset of winter, especially towards the Po, to make use of the pastures there while their homeland is covered in snow.

Furthermore, those who remain at home manufacture a large quantity of wooden agricultural and household implements, such as ladders, buckets, carrying tubs, small casks, pipes, ox yokes, wooden shoes, bowls, spoons, and many other items, which they then sell at the markets of Trento and Rovereto. The inhabitants of the Thirteen Veronese Communes, besides agriculture and livestock breeding, occupy themselves mostly with charcoal burning, which they sell in Verona, where they also haul ice from their mountains for the summer. Another secure branch of trade, dictated by necessity, has been chosen by the Germans of Pergine, and especially those from the curacies of Palù, St. Francis, and St. Felix in Fierozzo: towards the end of October, they too set off in several companies, each comprising 20 to 30 people, straight to Bohemia, where they buy up large quantities of holy images painted on crystal from the factories of Lanau and Buchers—images of somewhat poor taste, yet much sought after by peasants—then first transport them by boat on the Danube, subsequently split in various directions, and sell their wares in Hungary, Poland, Transylvania, and everywhere Catholic inhabitants live, all the way to the Turkish border.

Towards Easter almost all return from their trading journey, then settle accounts with one another with admirable candor and honesty, and then divide the profit, which, according to the capital invested, is often quite considerable. Their contracts are mostly oral; their code of law is the custom of ancient times. The accounts are written with a piece of chalk on the board in an inn in Styria or Austria. Anyone who cannot write places his hat on the table, on which his entry into the company and his expenses are marked with chalk. They liquidate and divide without mistrust, and without reason for mistrust, and then return home cheerfully.

It must be about 60 years since these people turned to this trade, which has now become common among them, and although the enterprise itself is very imperfect, being linked with the burdensome necessity of a long journey back and forth, and the fragile and heavy goods cause significant transport costs, nevertheless their extreme frugality and the good reputation they enjoy everywhere for their honest conduct afford them the most favorable reception in those countries where everyone knows them, so that their board costs them little and the profit suffers only a small deduction for expenses.

It is hardly believable, and yet true, that in so many years not the slightest complaint has ever been heard against these numerous merchants of Pergine, neither in the countries through which they travel, nor has the least lawsuit arisen among themselves, even though they trade in company, where one trusts the other on his bare word.

Their profit could perhaps be doubled if they gave their commercial projects a little more scope by taking inferior silk or floss silk manufactures from home with them and bringing back linen and other goods from Austria or Moravia; but so far they have not managed to depart from their old habit, and on the other hand they by no means wish to become actual merchants, but devote the rest of their time to agriculture. However, not all return to their families annually. Some buy houses and estates in Hungary and settle there; others settle there only half-way, keeping part of their family in Pergine as well, some even wives, children, and home. (To be continued.)