Page 209 - 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. 209
peasant population and income integration: the case of the trieste port-town ...
The first detailed and reliable population data referring to the rural
territory date not before the 1770s, when the conscription system was in-
troduced in Austria to keep the evidence of the population for military
and civic needs. In 1773 the first conscription of the Trieste rural area took
place along with the numbering of the houses. In 1777–78 it was followed
by a more detailed census based on the upgraded conscription system. For
both censuses the nominative registers of the population are preserved,
while for the conscriptions conducted in the following decades only sum-
mary aggregated data are available (Montanelli 1905, 42; Kalc 2004). Con-
scription population data disaggregated by single villages are available for
the years 1800, 1810, 1818 and 1846. At the mid-19th century starts the data
series of the modern censuses, which were taken in 1857, 1869, 1880, 1890,
1900 and 1910.
The focus of this contribution is on the demographic development in
the karstic area of the Trieste rural district. For this area the longest series
of population data are at our disposal and the vital statistics can also be in-
volved. Indeed, the area mostly coincides with the church administrative
borders and the census data can be combined with the vital statistics. In-
stead, in the rest of the rural territory such a comparison is not possible be-
cause of discrepancies and discontinuities in the church administration ge-
ography.
1. The population in numbers
The first reliable population data referring to the whole area under our
scrutiny dates back to the years 1647–48. This census, that the municipal
administration took to measure the peasants’ crops, listed 309 farmers in
the karstic villages. Assuming that all of them had a family and each family
had an average of five members, it is possible to imagine a population of
1545 people, while the population by single villages is displayed in Table 9.1.
On the same assumption the villages of Križ, Prosek and Kontovel should
have had, in 1525, about 300 inhabitants. These three villages, the only ones
taken into account by that earlier census, were the most populated in those
times. Their best land consisted of vineyards in a terrace system located on
the slope decreasing from the edge of the karstic plateau towards the sea.
Here viticulture already existed in Roman times.
The other, major part of the karstic area, partly wooded and mostly
stony and desolate, was sparsely populated. Here there were no land and
climate conditions suitable to bear fine crops. The temperatures are quite a
207
The first detailed and reliable population data referring to the rural
territory date not before the 1770s, when the conscription system was in-
troduced in Austria to keep the evidence of the population for military
and civic needs. In 1773 the first conscription of the Trieste rural area took
place along with the numbering of the houses. In 1777–78 it was followed
by a more detailed census based on the upgraded conscription system. For
both censuses the nominative registers of the population are preserved,
while for the conscriptions conducted in the following decades only sum-
mary aggregated data are available (Montanelli 1905, 42; Kalc 2004). Con-
scription population data disaggregated by single villages are available for
the years 1800, 1810, 1818 and 1846. At the mid-19th century starts the data
series of the modern censuses, which were taken in 1857, 1869, 1880, 1890,
1900 and 1910.
The focus of this contribution is on the demographic development in
the karstic area of the Trieste rural district. For this area the longest series
of population data are at our disposal and the vital statistics can also be in-
volved. Indeed, the area mostly coincides with the church administrative
borders and the census data can be combined with the vital statistics. In-
stead, in the rest of the rural territory such a comparison is not possible be-
cause of discrepancies and discontinuities in the church administration ge-
ography.
1. The population in numbers
The first reliable population data referring to the whole area under our
scrutiny dates back to the years 1647–48. This census, that the municipal
administration took to measure the peasants’ crops, listed 309 farmers in
the karstic villages. Assuming that all of them had a family and each family
had an average of five members, it is possible to imagine a population of
1545 people, while the population by single villages is displayed in Table 9.1.
On the same assumption the villages of Križ, Prosek and Kontovel should
have had, in 1525, about 300 inhabitants. These three villages, the only ones
taken into account by that earlier census, were the most populated in those
times. Their best land consisted of vineyards in a terrace system located on
the slope decreasing from the edge of the karstic plateau towards the sea.
Here viticulture already existed in Roman times.
The other, major part of the karstic area, partly wooded and mostly
stony and desolate, was sparsely populated. Here there were no land and
climate conditions suitable to bear fine crops. The temperatures are quite a
207
