L’invenzione “industriale” della tradizione: il cartello dell’Aceto balsamico tradizionale di Spilamberto

Traditional Balsamic Vinegar of Modena (TBV) is worldwide one of Italy’s most famous typical food products. Its success is due to its quality, but in no small part, to marketing strategy too. This involves “inventing a tradition”, including the rites of Medieval Guilds, and the message reaching the market reflects a glorious, mythical past. This paper uses this framework to examine the organisation of supply of TBV, which at one stage involved a cartel of producers. It examines institutions, businesses and associations as actors. It shows how the safeguarding of product quality was part of an informal agreement on strategy between TBV producers and the business system in the Modena area. The aim was to increase market share of BVM, Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a similar sounding but qualitatively different commercially produced and much more profitable product. The history of these products is used to interpret a highly specialised production system concentrated in a geographical area. The study thus involves economic theory, particularly industrial economics, and also shows a potential to cross the traditional boundaries between different research areas.