ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses two premises, the first historical, the second methodological. Relational capital associated with attachment to the circuit of d’Este courts may have conferred upon individual’s great advantage from an economic point of view. The existence of a veritable network of d’Este courts produced positive effects of considerable importance. In addition to the two major courts were the minor, or non-ducal, courts. This category of court included those of the other princes and princesses of the blood. The courts contained, therefore, lineages of squires, equerries, gentlemen, doctors, herbalists, treasurers, bookkeepers, craftsmen, stewards, counsellors, falconers, horsemen, collectors, treasurers, and so on. The manufacturing activities, together with more traditional types of consumption, involved an enormous number of people. The reasons for slow upward progress lie both in the idiosyncrasy of the skills developed and in the preference given to long-term dealings founded on fiduciary relationships.
