Winemakers and wine industry developments in Italy (1884–1914)

ABSTRACT

The association of Italian wine growers was founded in Rome in 1884. It was the beginning of the history of wine entrepreneurship in Italy. This article analyses the first nucleus of wine entrepreneurship in Italy between 1884 and 1914. During that period the international market made a decisive contribution to the modernization of wineries. The state played an important role in creating a favorable context for the industrialization of the sector and the practice of competitive commercial strategies. The most relevant result was the birth of national entrepreneurship, with a significant contribution from the southern regions of the peninsula. From a social point of view, Italian wine entrepreneurship was the effect of the fusion of noble families and members of the commercial bourgeoisie. The result was that in Italy too, there was a consolidation of a dynamic entrepreneurial group in the wine and spirits sector, open to global markets. Many of these wine companies, born at the end of the nineteenth century, continue to represent solid entrepreneurial realities, demonstrating that wine remains a favorable terrain for the formation of long-term entrepreneurial trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Italy
• wine industry
• wine entrepreneurs
• wineries
• wine markets

Acknowledgments

This work was presented and discussed in ASSI meeting 2019 ‘Competing in international markets: From the world economy to globalization’ (Università Bocconi – Milan 11–12 December 2019) and in Rural History 2019: International Conference of the European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) (EHESS, Paris, 10–13 September 2019), Session: ‘New technology and new public intervention: the bird of the new Viticulture and Winemaking in Europe (end 19th-20th centuries)’. The authors thank the participants for their suggestions and advice, however, the authors are the only people responsible for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Archives

Archivio Bosca (Canelli, Asti), ‘Giornale mastro’ (America dal 30 novembre 1897 al 27 dicembre 1898).

Archivio centrale dello stato (Rome), Ufficio italiano brevetti e marchi

Notes

1 Archivio Bosca (Canelli, Asti), ‘Giornale mastro’ (America dal 30 novembre 1897 al 27 dicembre 1898). We thank Dr Roberts Favrin for making the documentation available.