Paper short abstract:

The paper presents the conflicts for forests and pastures between communities and feudal lords in the Primiero fiefdom in a crucial phase of the transformation of the local environment due to pressure over natural resources caused by the mining expansion and the rise of the timber trade (1429-1586).

Paper long abstract:

In the transition between Medieval and Early Modern times, the princely county of Tyrol (under Habsburg sovereignty) experienced an excellent mining expansion in the north. At the same time, in the south, the rise of the timber trade solidified links between Alpine environments and outlet cities (particularly Venice). Advances in mining techniques and using facilities for flotation significantly increased the pressure on nature. Interest in controlling these natural resources resulted in conflicts for rights of enjoyment over forests and pastures between communities and feudal lords. The paper presents the case of the Primiero fiefdom (currently in Trentino, Italy) and the struggle between the villages and the feudal lords, the Welsperg, to control the commons and the tax revenue from the timber trade. This conflictual phase (1429-1454) allows us to observe the practices implemented by the communities to defend the natural heritage and the strategies of the feudal lords to erode the rights of the inhabitants. In the following period, the consolidation of the Habsburg Empire and the emergence of a mining administration (1477) interested in the exploitation of the mines of this valley shows the policies of transformation of the local environment put into practice with precise forest ordinances (1541, 1558, 1586), implemented by increasingly powerful and centralized institutions.