The coral industry

ppoli61

@ppoli611674629039 · 27 Nov 2020

The coral industry

#culture

The coral industry in Livorno spans three centuries, from the seventeenth century to the first half of the twentieth century and is characterized by ups and downs, blooms and declines, decreed mainly by French and Japanese competition.
It was born with the first Jewish settlements in Livorno in 1602/3. It soon develops into a thriving international trade, which will then lead many families to emigrate again to England, from where the coral leaves for India. We know that both Grand Duke Leopold and Emperor Joseph of Habsburg visit the factories.
The eighteenth century is the century of the triumph of coral, the system of polishing with pumice powder and sawdust is invented, and great fairs are held with buyers from all over Europe.
Torre del Greco boats fish for coral in Corsica and Sardinia and the product is sold in Livorno. In the rush to get to the port, and fearing to find the price already dropped, the crews risk losing the boat. Even today, those who take a risky action say: "A varca'nfunno, a merchandise in Livorno". Then some families from Torre del Greco, shipowners and coral makers together, settled with us.
Napoleon crushed the trade by placing a tax on the fishing license in order to favor the coral reefs of Marseille. With the nineteenth century, however, the coral industry was reborn.
To be fashionable, the wedding trousseau must include necklaces, charms, crosses made by Livorno goldsmiths. The workers are almost exclusively female. To mount the corals you need small, quick hands and good eyes. The girls work for eight hours in winter and ten in summer, in large rooms with large windows, to take advantage of natural light. The Livorno women are paid more than their colleagues in the south and the salaries are rewarding. The factories sponsor charitable works and kindergartens, where the orphans are taught the trade. Corallai usually meet at the Caffè Folletto, near Piazza Cavour.
When France colonized Algeria, which has always been the main source of coral, after the Sardinian coral is exhausted, profits drop in Livorno. Then France forced the Livorno citizens, who fish in Algeria, to take French citizenship and this gave the coup de grace to the coral industry, which would drag on increasingly weakly from the early twentieth century to its first half. Japanese competition is added to the ruthless French one, the great European courts, which have always been clients, disappear, devastating wars like the Italian-Turkish one and the two World Wars follow one another, the crisis of 29 depresses the economy, the racial laws scare off the Jewish families.
The last to close their doors are the Lazzara, but the name of many well-known and wealthy families is linked to the coral industry, from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Just to name a few: the Chayes, the Attias, the Buttel (also owners of jewelers in Paris), the Franco, the Palomba, the Coen.