Page 213 - 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. 213
peasant population and income integration: the case of the trieste port-town ...
A stronger impulse in the growth is evident in the first decades of the
18th century, especially after the proclamation of the free port in 1719. In the
first half of the 18th century the population average annual growth rate was
8.5 per mil. In the late 1730s and early 1740s, however, the implementation
of the free port project faced with a crisis, rooted in institutional and or-
ganisational issues, that negatively reflected in the demography. With the
reformation of the regional administrative system (the establishment of the
Austrian Littoral region), the legislation improvements and the introduc-
tion of a governance for mercantile affairs in the 1750s (Faber 1995) the port
city started to take off and the population growth of the entire municipal-
ity became livelier.
Graph 9.1: Population of the Trieste Karst villages 1656-1775 estimated on the basis of the
birth rates
In the mid-1760s another crisis influenced growth. Just in the 1770s
the demographic rise became more evident. The estimations on the basis
of the birth rates give a higher population number in the 1770s compared
to the conscription data. Presumably the numbers in the former decades
too, were lower than those displayed in the figure, because the birth rates
changed within that period. Indeed, according to the quite trustworthy
conscription data, a ratio of 1 birth per 22.75 people can be observed. This
corresponds to about a 44 per mil birth rate. The coefficient for the 17th cen-
tury has been adopted in Graph 9.1 until the 1770s only to give an idea of the
long run growth dynamic.
211
A stronger impulse in the growth is evident in the first decades of the
18th century, especially after the proclamation of the free port in 1719. In the
first half of the 18th century the population average annual growth rate was
8.5 per mil. In the late 1730s and early 1740s, however, the implementation
of the free port project faced with a crisis, rooted in institutional and or-
ganisational issues, that negatively reflected in the demography. With the
reformation of the regional administrative system (the establishment of the
Austrian Littoral region), the legislation improvements and the introduc-
tion of a governance for mercantile affairs in the 1750s (Faber 1995) the port
city started to take off and the population growth of the entire municipal-
ity became livelier.
Graph 9.1: Population of the Trieste Karst villages 1656-1775 estimated on the basis of the
birth rates
In the mid-1760s another crisis influenced growth. Just in the 1770s
the demographic rise became more evident. The estimations on the basis
of the birth rates give a higher population number in the 1770s compared
to the conscription data. Presumably the numbers in the former decades
too, were lower than those displayed in the figure, because the birth rates
changed within that period. Indeed, according to the quite trustworthy
conscription data, a ratio of 1 birth per 22.75 people can be observed. This
corresponds to about a 44 per mil birth rate. The coefficient for the 17th cen-
tury has been adopted in Graph 9.1 until the 1770s only to give an idea of the
long run growth dynamic.
211
