Page 212 - 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. 212
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
the whole karstic district had registered a very significant growth until the
middle of the 17th century. Indeed, according to the perticazione of 1647–
48 it tripled. New peasant settlers from the hinterland immigrated in that
period in the karstic as well as in the flysch area. As chroniclers’ reports
prove, they tended to introduce livestock also in the part of the agrarian
area under the edge of the karst plateau. This was in contrast with the com-
munal statutes and sometimes brought about expulsions (Montanelli 1905,
34–35). A considerable demographic growth took place over this long time
span also in the broader hinterland of Trieste. It occurred in the second and
third quarters of the 16th century in terms of repopulation and further col-
onisation of the areas, which had been devastated during the greatest Turk
incursion at the end of the 15th century (Panjek 2015, 100).
The next, and the first exact figure on the number of the population
in the area under the consideration dates just in 1777–78. The census (mil-
itary conscription) of that year noticed in the karstic villages a population
of 2775 (Kalc 2004). By involving the birth series, available since the mid-
17th century (Montanelli 1905, 80–7), it is possible to evaluate the extent and
trace the dynamic of the demographic growth in this more than one centu-
ry long phase. The birth numbers or natality, which fluctuate around quite
constant averages in the long run, constitute a useful basis to approximate
the number of the population and especially to observe the tendencies of
the development. This dynamic from the mid-17th to the second half of the
18th century appears along with the population estimates in Graph 9.1. It has
been calculated on the basis of a five year birth average and a ratio of 1 birth
per 27.59 inhabitants, in other terms a birth rate of 36.25 per mil. The coeffi-
cient has been obtained comparing the population number of 1647–48 and
the birth average of the years 1658–1662, the closest with the reliable birth
data (previously the birth data seemed clearly too low).
The dynamic of the first half of the century cannot be displayed be-
cause of missing birth data. It is nevertheless possible to infer that after the
peace with the Venetian republic, signed in 1617 in Madrid, the population
of the karstic district increased as that of a city until the middle of the cen-
tury. The year 1650 was marked by a famine, which entailed a drop in pop-
ulation. A positive growth tendency followed until the end of the 1660s,
when it became uncertain and very oscillating. In the 1670s there was a
drop, in the next decade an increase and in the 1690s a new fall. At the be-
ginning of the 18th century the number of the population was more or less
the same as in the middle of the 16th century.
210
the whole karstic district had registered a very significant growth until the
middle of the 17th century. Indeed, according to the perticazione of 1647–
48 it tripled. New peasant settlers from the hinterland immigrated in that
period in the karstic as well as in the flysch area. As chroniclers’ reports
prove, they tended to introduce livestock also in the part of the agrarian
area under the edge of the karst plateau. This was in contrast with the com-
munal statutes and sometimes brought about expulsions (Montanelli 1905,
34–35). A considerable demographic growth took place over this long time
span also in the broader hinterland of Trieste. It occurred in the second and
third quarters of the 16th century in terms of repopulation and further col-
onisation of the areas, which had been devastated during the greatest Turk
incursion at the end of the 15th century (Panjek 2015, 100).
The next, and the first exact figure on the number of the population
in the area under the consideration dates just in 1777–78. The census (mil-
itary conscription) of that year noticed in the karstic villages a population
of 2775 (Kalc 2004). By involving the birth series, available since the mid-
17th century (Montanelli 1905, 80–7), it is possible to evaluate the extent and
trace the dynamic of the demographic growth in this more than one centu-
ry long phase. The birth numbers or natality, which fluctuate around quite
constant averages in the long run, constitute a useful basis to approximate
the number of the population and especially to observe the tendencies of
the development. This dynamic from the mid-17th to the second half of the
18th century appears along with the population estimates in Graph 9.1. It has
been calculated on the basis of a five year birth average and a ratio of 1 birth
per 27.59 inhabitants, in other terms a birth rate of 36.25 per mil. The coeffi-
cient has been obtained comparing the population number of 1647–48 and
the birth average of the years 1658–1662, the closest with the reliable birth
data (previously the birth data seemed clearly too low).
The dynamic of the first half of the century cannot be displayed be-
cause of missing birth data. It is nevertheless possible to infer that after the
peace with the Venetian republic, signed in 1617 in Madrid, the population
of the karstic district increased as that of a city until the middle of the cen-
tury. The year 1650 was marked by a famine, which entailed a drop in pop-
ulation. A positive growth tendency followed until the end of the 1660s,
when it became uncertain and very oscillating. In the 1670s there was a
drop, in the next decade an increase and in the 1690s a new fall. At the be-
ginning of the 18th century the number of the population was more or less
the same as in the middle of the 16th century.
210
