Page 22 - 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. 22
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
secondary and tertiary sectors in Slovenia stood “in tight correlation with
the extent of external demand and other exogenous factors” – and in the
Early Modern period the driving foreign market was represented by Italian
states (Lazarević 2015, 12–36), whose economic movement in that period
has already been roughly sketched. By connecting this observation with the
above mentioned macroeconomic effects of peasant activities in the sec-
ondary and tertiary sectors, we might then speak of an ‘export-led peasant
economy’ in pre-industrial Slovenia.
2. The first definition of the integrated peasant economy
As we have seen, the words used in Slovenian historiography to write abo-
ut the peasant activities in the secondary and tertiary sectors are “peasant
trade,” “peasant production,” “non-agrarian activities,” and “commerciali-
sation,” to which “complementary activities” (meaning complementary to
agriculture) has to be added. Apart from “commercialisation,” used by Ge-
strin in particular (but not referring to peasants only), it’s possible to notice
that this way the peasant economy is not regarded as a whole, nor as a spe-
cific object of research.8
Precisely this is one of the main efforts we have attempted in this book,
that is to put the peasant economy at the centre of attention and investi-
gate its inherent economic rationality, and to do so by trying to assume a
point of view from its inside, to look at things from the perspective of the
peasant households, communities, and peasant economy as a whole. This
is, of course, far from being the first attempt in this direction in interna-
tional historical scholarship, but still it has some originality in it – it strives
to take in to consideration the three economic sectors altogether and con-
sider them as equal ingredients of a whole, while questioning the prevail-
ing assumption that the peasant household economy aimed at subsistence
and survival only, as well as that the recourse to activities different from on-
farm agriculture was out of need only.
For a first check of the extent to which the peasant economy in Slove-
nia integrated different income sources, I drafted a scheme including the
activities that brought an increase and differentiation in income, in com-
parison to the sole ‘basic’ agricultural production meant for self-consump-
tion (Panjek 2015a). The purpose of this scheme was to enable a first com-
parison of the Slovenian situation in the pre-industrial period with the
wider Alpine and western European reality. In order to do so, I summed up
8 Grafenauer 1970 is one of the exceptions.
20
secondary and tertiary sectors in Slovenia stood “in tight correlation with
the extent of external demand and other exogenous factors” – and in the
Early Modern period the driving foreign market was represented by Italian
states (Lazarević 2015, 12–36), whose economic movement in that period
has already been roughly sketched. By connecting this observation with the
above mentioned macroeconomic effects of peasant activities in the sec-
ondary and tertiary sectors, we might then speak of an ‘export-led peasant
economy’ in pre-industrial Slovenia.
2. The first definition of the integrated peasant economy
As we have seen, the words used in Slovenian historiography to write abo-
ut the peasant activities in the secondary and tertiary sectors are “peasant
trade,” “peasant production,” “non-agrarian activities,” and “commerciali-
sation,” to which “complementary activities” (meaning complementary to
agriculture) has to be added. Apart from “commercialisation,” used by Ge-
strin in particular (but not referring to peasants only), it’s possible to notice
that this way the peasant economy is not regarded as a whole, nor as a spe-
cific object of research.8
Precisely this is one of the main efforts we have attempted in this book,
that is to put the peasant economy at the centre of attention and investi-
gate its inherent economic rationality, and to do so by trying to assume a
point of view from its inside, to look at things from the perspective of the
peasant households, communities, and peasant economy as a whole. This
is, of course, far from being the first attempt in this direction in interna-
tional historical scholarship, but still it has some originality in it – it strives
to take in to consideration the three economic sectors altogether and con-
sider them as equal ingredients of a whole, while questioning the prevail-
ing assumption that the peasant household economy aimed at subsistence
and survival only, as well as that the recourse to activities different from on-
farm agriculture was out of need only.
For a first check of the extent to which the peasant economy in Slove-
nia integrated different income sources, I drafted a scheme including the
activities that brought an increase and differentiation in income, in com-
parison to the sole ‘basic’ agricultural production meant for self-consump-
tion (Panjek 2015a). The purpose of this scheme was to enable a first com-
parison of the Slovenian situation in the pre-industrial period with the
wider Alpine and western European reality. In order to do so, I summed up
8 Grafenauer 1970 is one of the exceptions.
20
