Manufacturing activities in the territory of Loro increased during the course of the 20th century. The list of manufacturers and workers in the Commune of Loro Ciuffenna of 1902 indicated 12 workmen for the Brogi spinning mill, twice the number of a few years earlier. In that same year, the industrial Antonio Del Vita of Montevarchi set up another factory in the former Magnozzi spinning mill, leasing it directly from the Commune of Loro (an item of news drawn from the periodical "Il Valdarno" of 1-2-1902).

The spinning mill of Loro

At the time, according to the list of manufacturers and workers in the Commune of Loro, there were 3 spinning mills with the following names and characteristics: 1. "Filanda Brogi Luigi", with 12 basins 2. "Filanda Del Vita Antonio, with 26 basins 3. "Filanda Celli Giuseppe", with 2 basins At that time in the town, in addition to the spinning mills, there was - although for a limited time - also another manufacturing activity. During the first decade of the 20th century, Loro had assumed always greater economic importance, which also attracted the surrounding territory. At the beginning of the 1920s, the silk-making business continued to constitute Loro's main production. The growth of Loro's economy was also testified to by the continuous increase in the local population and, in particular, in the village.

In the 1911 census, in fact, 5,600 inhabitants were counted, more than 1,400 of whom lived in the village of Loro. About ten years later, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants had increased to about 6,000, with more than 1,500 living in Loro.

Piazza Umberto I a Loro

The positive economic trend was interrupted as a result of the 1929 crisis, the effects of which were felt starting from the beginning of the 1930s. Already in the 1931 census, the population of both the village and the territory of Loro had decreased by 10%: 5,360 inhabitants, 1,370 of whom lived in Loro. The economic recession that led to a general reduction in commerce and trade was felt in all sectors of the economy, but seemed particularly serious in regard to the silk-making industry. As a consequence of the silk crisis, in 1936 more than 80% of the active population was employed in the sector of agriculture. The economic decline was also testified to by the continuous decrease in the population of Loro, which dropped from 5,360 to 4,035 inhabitants between 1931 and 1963: a reduction of more than 30% over about thirty years.
The lack of alternative resources to silk compromised the economic development of Loro, which then found itself having to cope above all with the growing industrial competition of the major towns in the valley bottom. Loro was not a part of the new industrial basis, and above all was not included in the Valdarno section of the railway. The economy of the community of Loro began again to show some sort of dynamism only starting at the end of the 1950s, during the period of a general boom in the Italian economy.

The evolution in the data on the population that had jobs must not let us forget the constant importance of the non-active population which, from 1961 on, began to exceed the employed. The maximum level of non-active population was reached in 1981, with 58%. It is not casual, therefore, that the non-active population of the territory of Loro was among the few in the upper Valdarno to manifest a descending trend, arriving in 1971 at a count of 3,650 inhabitants, 966 of whom lived in Loro, with a further decrease of about 10% with respect to 1963 - even if, starting in 1971, a constant increase in the population was registered. In spite of the development of the industrial sector, starting above all in 1971, the importance of the economy of the Commune of Loro has always remained marginal with respect to the area of the upper Valdarno. The growth that has taken place, especially in the sector of light manufactures, has consisted essentially of small businesses of an artisan nature.

The village of Loro

No real and proper take-off in the economy of Loro has uccurred - as perhaps the silk-making factories had made people hope. It did not succeed in entering the sphere of the extensive industrial basin formed by the "new lands" of the valley bottom: San Giovanni Valdarno, Terranuova Bracciolini, and Montevarchi. Above all, it has continued to be excluded from the main communications and transport route of Italian industry: the railway. Loro thus continues to maintain its original characteristics as a medieval village on the border between the high hills and the mountains.