The wholesalers and their job

In the middle of the 19th century, the production model of the putting-out system, which had already reached excellent results in the German and Austrian cities, came to Val Gardena. Within this system, the new social class of the wholesalers commissioned orders to the artisans and then sold the products above all abroad. Thus in a short time the majority of the wooden figures passed to the property of these merchants, who simplified the sales logistics and at the same time provided the homeworker with the raw materials saving them a lot of time.

In other words, the workers kept the responsibility for the production with all its risks, but it was the wholesaler who was in charge of the promotion of the articles and who had to find sellers. The first wholesalers were the sacristan Johann Dominik Moroder and the saddler Josef Purger, both from Ortisei. Soon they were joined by other wholesalers from Ortisei, S. Cristina and Selva Gardena. Initially, the wholesalers were not given much importance as they received only a small premium for their shipping service and as they worked above all as intermediary for relatives living abroad.

Soon the merchants of Val Gardena realized that in order to increase the exports better connections with the valley were necessary. The streets leading to the neighbouring countries were steep and narrow, and a horse could only transport 100 kg of merchandise. These were the conditions for the transport of food and handcraft products until the middle of the 19th century.

The decisive turn took place in 1856 as under the direction of Johann Baptist Purger the road which connected Ponte Gardena with Ortisei and later on also with Plan was built. The whole population of Val Gardena was aware of this private initiative and approved it unconditionally. The debts caused by this construction were made square within 26 years thanks to the introduction of a toll, which proved beneficial also for the maintenance of the road. It has to be mentioned that the construction of a road enabling the communication between a mountain valley and its neighbouring localities and countries was something really unusual for that time. But thanks to the wholesaler Johann Baptist Purger, Val Gardena was connected with the outside world decades before the other mountain valleys.