Holiday & Business

Talent and industriousness: a time-tested story, from roman mines to Leonardo's studies from the old forges to the telescope

Metal veins in the Valsassina and Valvarrone valleys, a forest stand able to supply pit-coal to smelting furnaces, a largen nulmber of watercourses supplying motive power far machine operation, and a trading pIace such as Milan in the neighbourhood.

A successful concurrence of these factors laid the foundations of an iron processing industry in the Lecco area. Its oldest traces date back to Roman times. Studied by Leonardo da Vinci, this industry flourished in the time of the Viscontis and Sforzas.

Supported by the enlightened governments of Maria Theresa af Austria and Jaseph II,.on mid 19th century the Valsassina valley's iron metallurgy commenced a decline without recall. This was not the case with second processing metallurgical industry, concentrated in the lower Valsassina Valley and in Lecco, in the towns along the Vallata del Gerenzone valley, to which the manufacturing industry progressively moved.

A comprehensive system of small drawing mills and forges was thus established, highly specialized and integrated in spite of splinter plants, which ensured a remarkable and diversified production of semi-finished products. This was the time when three great entrepreneurial dynasties - the Badonis, Falcks and Redaellis linked their names to the iron industry in the Lecco District, and were the first to introduce new production technologies and to innovate the business organization in ltaly.

When mechanics gained ground, at the outset of the 20th century, the foundations were laid for an intensive industrial development in the Lecco area, which played a main rate in the period after the second World War. A crescendo of spontaneous enterprises which redoubled thanks to a deep-rooted tradition, and a widespread entrepreneurial attitude: all this associated to skilled technicians and a group of active entrepreneurs devoted to innovation, who have launched the "Made in Lecco" label throughout the world, even in leading areas such as the aerospace industry. 

After surviving the difficult period of Spanish domination, metallurgy revived vigorously under the Austrian empress Maria Theresa and later under her son Joseph II. The mining industry, however, began an irremediable decline. Through the 18th and early 19th century, incentives were provided to stimulate technological innovation and the development of more efficient smelting furnaces. At the same time, local duties were abolished and shipping routes and methods were improved. In spite of all this, metallurgy was the victim of an international depression that, by the middle of the 19th century, had forced even the strongest and most tenacious of the production centers to cease their activities.

The silk industry in the Lecco area and, more in general, throughout the Lombardy region experienced a similar rise and fall. At first it was aided by a growing international demand (just to have an idea of its importance, it should be noted that in the middle of the 19th century Lecco had 33% of all the silk mills operating in the Duchy of Milan, 29% of the spinning plants and 58% of the yarn twisting plants), though later it was beset by problems that had a heavy influence on its development and consolidation (mulberry parassites, foreign competition).ssiti dei gelsi, concorrenza estera).

The history of the iron and silk industry can help us understand how metallurgy came to develop in the Lecco zone, partly because of the dynamics connected with the workforce and partly because of certain choices that turned out to be winners in the most difficult stages of the depression.

From the early years of the 19th century, the metallurgical industry of the Lecco zone, largely located in the so-called "Valley" area (a group of towns north of Lecco joined by the Gerenzone river and its artificial tributary, the Fiumicella), began to take on the structure of a "system-area", capable of adapting with greater flexibility and dynamism to the rapid and often dramatic changes in the historical and political position of Italy..

"A foundry, fifty forges with drop hammer, sixty rollers or drawbenches and many other small forges without hammer, and workshops where the metal is worked to produce any type of small hardware ilike polished chains, nails, etc.": this is the brief picture handed down to us by the vice-prefect Tamassia on the conditions in which, at the beginning of the 19th century, the main economic activities of the Lecco area were operating. It is a positive picture and continued to prosper in the years thereafter.

The basic element of the production system were the large forges for the production of ingots; these were then reduced in the small forges to round, square or flat rods, or hammered into utensils of every kind or more voluminous types of equipment. Then their were workshops specialized in the production of nails, locks, fixtures, buckles, bits, chains, etc.

But the product for which the Lecco mills were most famed was iron wire, made in the wire mills: in 1850 they were turning out as many as 11 million kilos of wire, a volume that made the Lecco zone a unique production center in the Kingdom of Italy.

A second element characterising the production system of Lecco was the large number of mills concentrated in the area, due above all to the generous availability of hydraulic energy provided by the Gerenzone river. At the time of Italian unification, there were as many as 153 mills, almost all concentrated in the "Valley" zone.

Lecco's industry underwent extensive expansion around 1870, reaching its peak in the three-year period from 1871-73; this progress came about essentially as a result of the specialization and rationalization of the system enacted by the leading producers, that was decisive in terms of its future development.

At the end of the 19th century, the production system of the metallurgical industry had the following configuration: at the apex were the large forges that, having definitively abandoned the production of cast iron for the cheaper reuse of scrap, the ingots were prepared for the wire mills (about 2000 tons of material in 1872, plus another 800 tons coming from northern Italy and England). Over 80% of the ingots were converted into rods in the Badoni rolling mill at Castello and, after 1873, also in the Malavedo rolling mill.

The rolling mill "Giuseppe Badoni & Comp.", founded in 1850 in a partnership of the Badoni family of Lecco and Giorgio Enrico Falck, was the only "major company" in the area; it fit into the specific economic system without upsetting it, providing a dialectical relationship with the other small and medium enterprises.

The spread of puddler and souder furnaces, the introduction of peat as a fuel in place of coal, the spread of mechanical processes in many stages of production, were only a few of the most significant innovations that were introduced by this family of industrialists from Lecco in their plants; they deserve the credit, above all, for stimulating the entire industrial context of the area with great energy, imposing a definite process of modernisation of operating procedures and opening their doors to collaboration among the many operators in the metallurgical field.

In 1873 the corporation Laminatoio in Malavedo was founded by Giorgio Enrico Falck and two families of wire manufacturers, Bolis and Redaelli. The company was characterised by a so-called "tripod" model of production: the initial stage of the production process, that is the first hot processes, were common to all the products; for the rest of the processes the co-owners were allowed the maximum freedom to use the material available for any commercial or industrial uses. Of the 1,500 tons a year of rolled rod, 400 were purchased and processed in the Redaelli plant, another "historical" family of Lecco's metallurgical industry that progressively came to polarise around its activity all the minor trades in the Sassina valley, organising a modern sales network for it on the national level.

In 1896, with the founding of the Società Anonima Ferriere del Caleotto, another of Falck's ideas became a concrete reality: he wanted to eliminate the fragmentation and individualism of the industry and establish the first Italian plant specialized in the production of wire rod; the three initial founders (Francesco Airoldi, Enrico Bonaiti and Giacomo Gerosa) soon grew to over twenty partners, all wire manufacturers who were aware of the concrete potential for producing the raw materials they needed in their industries on their own, without having to import them from abroad.

The turn of the century was an important period of consolidation for the industrial zone of Lecco. The process of evolution enabled it to demonstrate how the local system, at that time, was capable of making strategic adaptations to change.

Significant examples of entrepreneurial synergy can be seen by the base and experimental terrain of the model that characterised and continues to characterise Lecco's industry: an articulated system of small wire mills and forges with continuous exchanges, highly specialised and integrated in spite of the fragmentation of the systems, that ensure an abundant and extremely diversified production of semi-processed materials.

With the growth of the mechanical industry, at the beginning of the 20th century, the foundations were laid for intensive industrial development. The zone of Lecco experienced an outpouring of spontaneous initiatives that continued to increase and multiply, thanks to a widespread entrepreneurial spirit and contribution of skilled technicians, but above all to the entrepreneurs themselves, who were willing and able to exchange experiences.

After World War I there was a further growth of the metallurgical industry, while the mechanical industry continued to expand and define the productive trends of the area, providing a definite and autonomous outline of the local manufacturing structure.

On the one hand, the systems of primary processing of iron consolidated their fame. Some of these were large companies engaged in processing scrap iron (for example, Acciaieria e Ferriera del Caleotto and Laminatoio di Arlenico); on the other hand, a network of small and medium companies that used the rods from the new plants to produce a wide range of metal products, more and more often made to order for the clientele. Already in the twenties and thirties there was a tendency, though very hesitant at first, to see the industrial district of Lecco more as a processing district that as a product district.

At the end of the second World War, the zone of Lecco headed immediately and decisively in the direction of a strong, new development of its industrial potential, characterised by the multitude of business initiatives in the wake of post-war reconstruction but also well prepared by the local tradition. In addition, Lecco enjoyed two important competitive advantages as compared to other industrial districts in the Lombardy region: the low cost of labor and considerable experience acquired in the sector of ironworking.

In the fifties, the development of metallurgy and mechanical industries was sustained by a widespread, spontaneous growth of business acumen characterised by operators with excellent technical competence, mainly trained in the production structures of important companies. In this connection, we can point to companies ilike Moto Guzzi, Fiocchi Munizioni, Forni e Impianti Industriali Ing. De Bartolomeis, SAE, Carniti.

The creation of "offshoot" companies begins to be more accentuated in the period 1961-1971 and spreads horizontally throughout the District, determining the development of a homogenous class of businessmen in terms of both age and culture.

The dynamics of this period saw a further decline in the textile industry while the metallurgical and mechanical industries were able to maintain their positions on the whole, though applying highly differentiated strategies depending on the sectors.

On the level of organisation it is important to remember that in 1965 the "Ilexport Consortium of Lecco" was founded, the first export consortium to be created in Italy for the purpose of developing exports of the small and medium enterprises and crafts.

The decade that followed, 1971-1981, was marked by a period of depression and unemployment in the production system of Lecco, that had by then reached a stage of maturity, but at the same time, the groundwork was being laid for major new developments. The depression was especially hard on the larger mechanical industries and some were forced to close, but it provided a base for the development of a large number of smaller companies, much more dynamic and above all much more competitive in the sphere of operating flexibility and innovation. The District can be said to have restructured itself in terms of a selective reduction and overall requalification of the offering, so as to be able to interface successfully on the new markets opening up in the world.

During the eighties, the small and medium manufacturing plants were the only sector of the metallurgical and mechanical industry that was not only capable of absorbing the employees who had lost their jobs as a result of the closure of the larger plants, but was also able to create additional jobs. High levels of productivity and good operating margins were the proof that Lecco's companies could respond effectively even to the challenges of the international market. Production and added value increased at rather high rates (over 10% per year) and investments grew more consistent so as to determine, by the end of the decade, a major increase in productivity and significant growth of profit margins.

At the end of the eighties, the large investments and reorganisation of production processes also implied the start of an important process of requalification of the workers, with attention to new professional roles and constant demand for technical and managerial training.

The excellent flexibility attained during the eighties, seen as a capacity of adapting to constant changes in the levels and types of production, combined with the high quality of the products, has given Lecco's mechanical industries a certain competitive advantage, by excluding them, to some extent, from the limitations of a type of competition based solely on the price.

Starting early in the nineties, the characteristics of the products offered by Lecco's mechanical industries changed considerably: only the stages with the highest added value were maintained and the range of production was reduced and shifted toward high quality products in areas less exposed to factors of depression.

The entrepreneur went through a transition phase from the role of a mere technician to that of a manager, oriented toward maintaining the company extremely dynamic on the technological plane; this made it possible to achieve a greater opening toward foreign markets while avoiding direct competition on the provincial territory. In addition, the companies realised that flexibility and quality were no longer enough, but that it was necessary to have co-ordinated management of all the fundamental strategic elements: costs, innovation, service.

One of the most significant changes that has occurred in these last few years has to do with supplier relations: in place of the generic relationship based on trust, typical in past years, there is more and more demand for rigorous reliability in deliveries and, more in general, in the procedures connected with orders. Attention to detail moves in step with the technical advantages offered by the new, impetuous growth of operating flexibility with computerised management, from design to storage, also for communications with international markets and adaptation to the most severe parameters of quality certification.

On the eve of the year 2000, the main strong points of Lecco's industrial enterprises can be identified by the presence of a widespread entrepreneurial culture, exclusive technical skills, high quality products and the ability to deal with markets through the potential of the entire "system".

It is precisely in this logic of a modern system that the functions of the system find their sense and scope. It is an organism of co-ordination, of course, but above all one providing incentives and promotion of a specific entrepreneurial identity that has centuries of history behind it and has already laid solid foundations for its future.