single individuals, who do have their personal life experience; nonetheless, in terms of history it is the statistical component that matters: it is the statistician who provides us with data quantification, and the scale is that of society as a whole. However, where no objective survey results are available, then one is entitled to adopt a more impressionistic, more qualitative approach, to map the route leading to possible future research projects on the subject.
Cinzia Lorandini, A family firm across the Alps.
Economic, human and social capital under the "Ancien Régime"
The experience of the Salvadori firm in Trento between the 17th and 18th centuries
helps us define some of the mechanisms underpinning entrepreneurial activity
during the Ancien Régime. In a matter of decades, the Salvadoris rose from running a few local shops to the status of entrepreneurs-merchants of international
renown. Their activities ranged from long-distance trade, coordination of production activities (for example, unwinding of the cocoon, reeling and twisting in
the silk manufacturing process), and conduct of financial transactions. Besides
adopting strategic choices, from venturing into the tobacco sector to specialising in the manufacturing and commerce of silk, they also managed to gradually
expand the capital endowment of the firm, develop a whole set of skills and roles
in members of the family in a managerial capacity, and build a complex web
of correspondents in an area stretching from central-northern Italy to central
Europe. This firm’s rise to success may therefore be interpreted as having been
due to a successful accumulation of capital in its broadest sense - economic,
human and social - in which the family played a leading role.
Konrad J. Kuhn, Hot spring and spa resorts.
Reflections on the history of Alpine tourism
in the Vorder Rhine Valley, Grisons
As the practice of spa cures took off, Alpine tourism enjoyed a new boom during the 19th century, especially in areas furthest removed from the busiest and
most popular Alpine routes. The article tracks the expansion of some villages
in the Grisons, such as Disentis, Tenigerbad, and Vals, after they had acquired
water-cure facilities. It also follows the evolution since World War I of the role
