“Primaria sia la necessità di provveder li pubblici macelli”. La gestione della carne nel Tirolo meridionale nel Settecento: il caso Rovereto

The research for this article, which is based on a systematic gathering of archive docu- ments, offers us new knowledge about the processes behind the formation and function- ing of food chains in the southern, Italian-speaking part of Tyrol in the modern period. The author pays particular attention to the analysis of the formation of economic regions deriving from the integrative process of interaction between consumer markets and areas of production, in this instance relating to commerce in animals for slaughter. The case under investigation examines the policies adopted by the municipal administration in Rovereto, where the Magistrates’ Court sought to guarantee a consistent level of food provision. The article highlights the crucial role played by contracted licence holders, figures whose importance has often been neglected in the existing historiography. In the eighteenth century, a meat licence in Rovereto guaranteed to the licence holder a monop- oly on the slaughter and sale of meat by means of public auction, with clauses in the tender specifications imposing strict rules, such as a ban on subcontracting, managerial separation between the licensed slaughterhouses, and checks on the quality and price of meat. This testifies to the municipal administration’s close attention to the regulation of the meat sector in the public interest. The municipal slaughterhouses, known locally as ‘the hooves’, were thus subject to rigid norms regarding quality, price and form of management.