ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES

Once many people lived  by the river Tanaro and their living depended on it.
From 1500 the inhabitants of Alessandria considered the river Tanaro as their source of work; in fact they could work as hoers, carpenters, millers, fishermen, boatmen, and market gardeners. There were berths, the ferryboat to cross the river from one bank to the other and a lot of boats with fishermen who caught fish using nets.
The Tanaro offered also a large quantity of the building   material used until the beginning of the 20^th century to build the less important houses in town.
At last the reutilization of the land left by the river, both naturally and artificially, created, along the banks, plots of land suitable for cattle rearing, growing of vegetables and poplar trees.
Under the Spanish rule there was a dark period and smuggling and contraband activities developed on the river.

		1) Milling
ONCE THERE WAS……		2) Fishing
		3) River navigation

1) Milling

The floating mills represented the first economic activity on the river; in some periods 28 mills worked.
Although the miller association was powerful and rich, the millers led a rather hard life and the risk of floods was constantly there. The importance of the mills was indisputable: in fact the interruption of their activity could even cause famine in town.
The milling activity stopped in 1915 when the only floating mill left, situated downstream from the bridge leading to the Cittadella, was destroyed at the outbreak of war.

2) Fishing

Fishing with boats and nets was regularly practised and it provided a considerable food resource. Women went to town and sold the fish just caught. In fact fishing represented one of the main sources of living and freshwater fish was in great demand both with country and town people. But with the coming of industrialisation the vital link between fishing and river changed. Fishing was no longer synonymous with livelihood and had become a hobby.

Before World War II, fishermen used different types of nets such as square fishing nets and fixed fishing rods without reels. After the war rods changed into more modern ones and for the first time fishermen had to comply with the regulations.

3) River navigation

Another activity that characterized the way of life on the river Tanaro in the past was the work of boatmen who also used boats hired from the town council. A lot of letters asking for permission to use the banks as landing places for boats were written.
There were ferry boats on the river Tanaro as well.

The prices of ferrying people and animals (horses, mules, asses, oxen, calves and so on) were fixed in centesimi and changed according to different circumstances such as transport by day or by night, single run or return on the same day, high or low level of the waters.
The burchiellos were also used to carry goods and people.

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