Page 216 - 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. 216
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Graph 9.3: Births and deaths in the parish of Opčine and the chaplainces of Prosek,
Bazovica, Križ and Kontovel 1815–1850
In the karstic district, this was the phase of the fastest population
growth of the whole time span considered. In the first two decades of the
19th century the pace of growth (14.8 per mil) was three times as high as in
the previous phase and was still increasing. The changes of rule and the ad-
ministration systems, the unfavourable economic conditions, the war taxes
and duties imposed as well as the obligations and services requested by the
French administration to the peasant population and several other factors
had a negative impact on economic life. For instance, the peasants were in-
volved in cartage for the administration and military needs, not only with-
in the Triestine area. Their journeys often lasted several days and had to
reach destinations as far as Ljubljana. However, in the times of the Illy-
ric provinces the inhabitants of the villages did not leave, since as peas-
ants they were rooted to their land. At the beginning of the Restoration an
agrarian crisis and a rise in mortality also had a negative demographic im-
pact. It reached its peak in 1816 and especially in 1817, after the second con-
sequently very poor harvest caused by the eruption of volcano Tambora of
1815, which brought about extraordinary climatic disturbances. In 1817 the
number of deaths in the Triestine commune increased by 76% compared
to 1816 (Brodmann 1821, 102). In the karstic district, however, the natural
growth rate was considerably positive in these decades, with only a few cas-
214
Graph 9.3: Births and deaths in the parish of Opčine and the chaplainces of Prosek,
Bazovica, Križ and Kontovel 1815–1850
In the karstic district, this was the phase of the fastest population
growth of the whole time span considered. In the first two decades of the
19th century the pace of growth (14.8 per mil) was three times as high as in
the previous phase and was still increasing. The changes of rule and the ad-
ministration systems, the unfavourable economic conditions, the war taxes
and duties imposed as well as the obligations and services requested by the
French administration to the peasant population and several other factors
had a negative impact on economic life. For instance, the peasants were in-
volved in cartage for the administration and military needs, not only with-
in the Triestine area. Their journeys often lasted several days and had to
reach destinations as far as Ljubljana. However, in the times of the Illy-
ric provinces the inhabitants of the villages did not leave, since as peas-
ants they were rooted to their land. At the beginning of the Restoration an
agrarian crisis and a rise in mortality also had a negative demographic im-
pact. It reached its peak in 1816 and especially in 1817, after the second con-
sequently very poor harvest caused by the eruption of volcano Tambora of
1815, which brought about extraordinary climatic disturbances. In 1817 the
number of deaths in the Triestine commune increased by 76% compared
to 1816 (Brodmann 1821, 102). In the karstic district, however, the natural
growth rate was considerably positive in these decades, with only a few cas-
214
