Page 200 - 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. 200
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
in making charcoal” (ammetteva che per vivere industriavasi anche a fare
il carbone).13
The commercialisation on longer, and more expensive, distances could
be justified by the arrival of the goods in particularly demanding places of
consumption, as in the case of the State’s capital city. The market in Rome
expressed a demand which level, in terms of quantity and prices paid,
could amortise the cost of transport. In Montefortino, today’s Artena, in
the province of Velletri, over 50 kilometres away from Rome, the municipal
prior ordered, without the legal permission of the central authorities, four
workers, including a cooper, to cut down some turkey oaks “to make some
hoops to be sold in Rome”.14 A load of timber, cleared out from the munici-
pal woods of Montelanico, a town in the province of Velletri, about 70 kilo-
metres from Rome, had been stopped on the way to Rome on 23rd February
1854. The offenders were three locals: two peasants that had acted togeth-
er and a “smith mason”.15 In 1855, an amount of timber, cut down from the
woods belonging to the noble Borghese family, located in the town of Men-
tana, had been sold in Rome, not much more than 20 kilometres away.16
3. Profit versus self-consumption
The official sources are full of critical considerations about the peasant’s use
of forest resources, motivated only by what was then defined as “greed for
profit” (avidità di lucro). A survey entitled “On the destruction of mountain
woods”, submitted in June 1850 by Pietro Lanciani to the Minister of com-
merce and public works, identified, without fear of contradiction, peasants
as guilty of forest destruction. According to Pietro Lanciani, who became
chief engineer within the corps of pontifical engineers (also known as fa-
ther of the archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani), the peasants, in order to find
new places for sowing, cut down wide portions of forest without getting
any significant benefits. In fact, due to the poor soil fertility, immediately
scoured by rain, the crops never grew there for more than two years con-
secutively. None of the rural activities were free from responsibility: crafts-
men, who chopped high-trunk trees coarsely for their manufactures, and
13 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 805 o.n., 21st April 1857.
14 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 807 o.n., 19th April 1859.
15 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 806 o.n., 29th January 1858 (date of the ver-
dict).
16 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 806 o.n., 5th March 1858. The offence was
committed on 10th June 1855.
198
in making charcoal” (ammetteva che per vivere industriavasi anche a fare
il carbone).13
The commercialisation on longer, and more expensive, distances could
be justified by the arrival of the goods in particularly demanding places of
consumption, as in the case of the State’s capital city. The market in Rome
expressed a demand which level, in terms of quantity and prices paid,
could amortise the cost of transport. In Montefortino, today’s Artena, in
the province of Velletri, over 50 kilometres away from Rome, the municipal
prior ordered, without the legal permission of the central authorities, four
workers, including a cooper, to cut down some turkey oaks “to make some
hoops to be sold in Rome”.14 A load of timber, cleared out from the munici-
pal woods of Montelanico, a town in the province of Velletri, about 70 kilo-
metres from Rome, had been stopped on the way to Rome on 23rd February
1854. The offenders were three locals: two peasants that had acted togeth-
er and a “smith mason”.15 In 1855, an amount of timber, cut down from the
woods belonging to the noble Borghese family, located in the town of Men-
tana, had been sold in Rome, not much more than 20 kilometres away.16
3. Profit versus self-consumption
The official sources are full of critical considerations about the peasant’s use
of forest resources, motivated only by what was then defined as “greed for
profit” (avidità di lucro). A survey entitled “On the destruction of mountain
woods”, submitted in June 1850 by Pietro Lanciani to the Minister of com-
merce and public works, identified, without fear of contradiction, peasants
as guilty of forest destruction. According to Pietro Lanciani, who became
chief engineer within the corps of pontifical engineers (also known as fa-
ther of the archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani), the peasants, in order to find
new places for sowing, cut down wide portions of forest without getting
any significant benefits. In fact, due to the poor soil fertility, immediately
scoured by rain, the crops never grew there for more than two years con-
secutively. None of the rural activities were free from responsibility: crafts-
men, who chopped high-trunk trees coarsely for their manufactures, and
13 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 805 o.n., 21st April 1857.
14 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 807 o.n., 19th April 1859.
15 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 806 o.n., 29th January 1858 (date of the ver-
dict).
16 ASR, Tribunale della sacra consulta, b. 806 o.n., 5th March 1858. The offence was
committed on 10th June 1855.
198
