A new reading of the economic system of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany through the georeferencing of shops and factories at the time of the setting up of the Lorraine Land Registry (1835)

Abstract

This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the social and economic conditions of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the mid eighteen thirties on the basis of recent geohistorical information. To perform this reconstruction, we georeferenced information relating to the nineteenth-century factories and shops recorded in the Land Registry. To date, this aspect has received little attention when considering the historiographic traditions of this area, firmly rooted in a sharecropping system based on the three main Mediterranean agricultural products.

The use of geostatistical tools allowed us to determine the height and slope of each of the geometries in the two geodatabases. We were also able to create positive spatial data autocorrelations, determine specific production and trading areas and thus determine the anthropisation levels of these territories in the outlying areas of the State.

The online publication of these geographical databases on the cartographic portal of the Tuscany Region through a dedicated WebGIS was the last phase of our study. Considering both the number and density of geometries surveyed, our work is an extraordinary example of how geohistorical research may be combined with new technologies for the purpose of studying geohistorical content and disseminating it to the general public.