Page 20 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 20
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Table 1.3: Shares of industrial production for the market in Carniola 1760–1775, as estimated
by J. Šorn (without the Idrija quicksilver mine and plant)
Form of production Share of gross domestic
product (%)
Peasant production (partly included in proto-industrial networks) 29
Craft (including rural craftsmen and proto-industrial networks) 25
Centralised plants in light industry 25
Centralised plants in heavy industry (mines and iron works) 21
Total 100
Source: Šorn 1984, 62–3.
So we proceed by estimations. We owe to Gestrin, again, a “first at-
tempt” of “quantifying peasant trade in the late Middle Ages and the 16th
century” or, more precisely, “an attempt to present a method for the cal-
culation, or better for an approximate estimation of the volume of peas-
ant trade.” He proposed that in the 16th and “partly” in the first half of the
17th centuries peasant trade in Slovenian lands reached “up to” 550,000 to-
vor per year, “and more” (Gestrin 1978, 169, 177). To get an idea, that would
mean nearly 100,000 tons (Table 1.2),4 on an area of about 24,000 km² (Ear-
ly Modern Slovenian “ethnical territory”) with an estimated population of
up to 800,000.5 Gestrin asserted, “without exaggeration and with all cer-
tainty,” that such quantity exceeded the volume traded by professional ur-
ban merchants in the 16th century, but also that peasant trade and transport
strongly influenced the whole economic and social dynamics in Slovenia.
“They brought to the peasant a not really small source of incomes, having
a positive effect on the development of the market economy and on the en-
largement of the market on the Slovenian territory, as well as raising its
economic strength” (Gestrin 1991, 288). In other words we may say that in
his opinion peasant trade and transport had positive macroeconomic ef-
fects, especially in the 16th century (Table 1.2). We have already seen how in
the secondary sector too, peasant industrial production may be expressed
in macroeconomic terms, at least towards the end of the 18th century (Ta-
4 For the conversion of the tovor (German Saum) we use here the weight of 1 Vienna
Saum = 168 kg (Panjek 2002, 16).
5 Such estimation (Gestrin 1991, 13) is confirmed by a more recent calculation, in
which on 20,000 km² (today’s Slovenia) a population of 662,000 was estimated – if
referred to 20,000 km² Gestrin’s figure would in fact be nearly the same, that is up to
675,000 people (Makarovič 2003, 390–1).
18
Table 1.3: Shares of industrial production for the market in Carniola 1760–1775, as estimated
by J. Šorn (without the Idrija quicksilver mine and plant)
Form of production Share of gross domestic
product (%)
Peasant production (partly included in proto-industrial networks) 29
Craft (including rural craftsmen and proto-industrial networks) 25
Centralised plants in light industry 25
Centralised plants in heavy industry (mines and iron works) 21
Total 100
Source: Šorn 1984, 62–3.
So we proceed by estimations. We owe to Gestrin, again, a “first at-
tempt” of “quantifying peasant trade in the late Middle Ages and the 16th
century” or, more precisely, “an attempt to present a method for the cal-
culation, or better for an approximate estimation of the volume of peas-
ant trade.” He proposed that in the 16th and “partly” in the first half of the
17th centuries peasant trade in Slovenian lands reached “up to” 550,000 to-
vor per year, “and more” (Gestrin 1978, 169, 177). To get an idea, that would
mean nearly 100,000 tons (Table 1.2),4 on an area of about 24,000 km² (Ear-
ly Modern Slovenian “ethnical territory”) with an estimated population of
up to 800,000.5 Gestrin asserted, “without exaggeration and with all cer-
tainty,” that such quantity exceeded the volume traded by professional ur-
ban merchants in the 16th century, but also that peasant trade and transport
strongly influenced the whole economic and social dynamics in Slovenia.
“They brought to the peasant a not really small source of incomes, having
a positive effect on the development of the market economy and on the en-
largement of the market on the Slovenian territory, as well as raising its
economic strength” (Gestrin 1991, 288). In other words we may say that in
his opinion peasant trade and transport had positive macroeconomic ef-
fects, especially in the 16th century (Table 1.2). We have already seen how in
the secondary sector too, peasant industrial production may be expressed
in macroeconomic terms, at least towards the end of the 18th century (Ta-
4 For the conversion of the tovor (German Saum) we use here the weight of 1 Vienna
Saum = 168 kg (Panjek 2002, 16).
5 Such estimation (Gestrin 1991, 13) is confirmed by a more recent calculation, in
which on 20,000 km² (today’s Slovenia) a population of 662,000 was estimated – if
referred to 20,000 km² Gestrin’s figure would in fact be nearly the same, that is up to
675,000 people (Makarovič 2003, 390–1).
18
