Page 235 - 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. 235
intangible and material evidence on the slovenian peasant economy ...
northern shores of the Adriatic Sea, mainly reaching from 200 to 500 me-
tres above its level. The conditions here are quite unfriendly for agricultu-
re. The Karst suffers from lack of surface waters and an abundance of fiery
winds, affording little cultivable land along with plenty of rocks and stones
scattered all over the grasslands and woodlands and even in the cultivable
earth. People here had a common saying stating that “stones grow.” At the
beginning of the 19th century the Karst peasants agreed they had “no real
woods:” in fact, the cultivated land consisted of small fields to tiny plots,
meadows and wide stony pastures with scattered trees and patches of wood
here and there. Around 1830, 38% of the surface consisted of bare pastu-
res and a further 7% of treeless meadows. Pastures and meadows with tre-
es amounted together to nearly 23%. Pastures with or without trees cove-
red nearly half of the surface (48.5%), while meadows with or without trees
another fifth (19.5%), and since coppice woods covered a scarce 8%, not even
a quarter of the whole surface remained for arable land, village buildings
and lanes (Panjek 2015b, 98–9).
Since we are investigating the integrated peasant economy, character-
ised by a combination of agricultural with extra-agrarian activities, a land
with poor agricultural conditions might be an appropriate case study: this
is the first reason why the Karst was chosen. The second reason consists of
the fact that the area was situated along the commercial route connecting
the central-eastern European flatlands (Pannonia and surroundings) with
the northern Italian plains and the Adriatic Sea. A couple of small towns
and seaports (Gorica/Gorizia, Trst/Trieste, Koper/Capodistria) added to
the opportunities of market related activities for the local peasants, always
bearing in mind the (potential) for an integrated peasant economy. The last
reason, but not least, is the relatively good quantity and quality of the archi-
val sources regarding the Karst area under the manorial administration of
Devin (it. Duino) whose lands we are going to analyse more closely. It cov-
ered the part of the Karst highlands reaching from the sea coast to about a
dozen kilometres inland and comprising about 30% of the Karst territory.
The Karst area was organised in feudal manors, whose owners com-
bined landlord, jurisdictional and administrative functions, and to which
the peasant population was subject. In this institutional framework, a rel-
atively simple way to detect the extent of peasant market related activities
is to check the manorial rent structure by dividing it into money and kind
and labour services. The manorial rent in money can act as an indicator of
the peasant’s connections with the market, based on the assumption that
233
northern shores of the Adriatic Sea, mainly reaching from 200 to 500 me-
tres above its level. The conditions here are quite unfriendly for agricultu-
re. The Karst suffers from lack of surface waters and an abundance of fiery
winds, affording little cultivable land along with plenty of rocks and stones
scattered all over the grasslands and woodlands and even in the cultivable
earth. People here had a common saying stating that “stones grow.” At the
beginning of the 19th century the Karst peasants agreed they had “no real
woods:” in fact, the cultivated land consisted of small fields to tiny plots,
meadows and wide stony pastures with scattered trees and patches of wood
here and there. Around 1830, 38% of the surface consisted of bare pastu-
res and a further 7% of treeless meadows. Pastures and meadows with tre-
es amounted together to nearly 23%. Pastures with or without trees cove-
red nearly half of the surface (48.5%), while meadows with or without trees
another fifth (19.5%), and since coppice woods covered a scarce 8%, not even
a quarter of the whole surface remained for arable land, village buildings
and lanes (Panjek 2015b, 98–9).
Since we are investigating the integrated peasant economy, character-
ised by a combination of agricultural with extra-agrarian activities, a land
with poor agricultural conditions might be an appropriate case study: this
is the first reason why the Karst was chosen. The second reason consists of
the fact that the area was situated along the commercial route connecting
the central-eastern European flatlands (Pannonia and surroundings) with
the northern Italian plains and the Adriatic Sea. A couple of small towns
and seaports (Gorica/Gorizia, Trst/Trieste, Koper/Capodistria) added to
the opportunities of market related activities for the local peasants, always
bearing in mind the (potential) for an integrated peasant economy. The last
reason, but not least, is the relatively good quantity and quality of the archi-
val sources regarding the Karst area under the manorial administration of
Devin (it. Duino) whose lands we are going to analyse more closely. It cov-
ered the part of the Karst highlands reaching from the sea coast to about a
dozen kilometres inland and comprising about 30% of the Karst territory.
The Karst area was organised in feudal manors, whose owners com-
bined landlord, jurisdictional and administrative functions, and to which
the peasant population was subject. In this institutional framework, a rel-
atively simple way to detect the extent of peasant market related activities
is to check the manorial rent structure by dividing it into money and kind
and labour services. The manorial rent in money can act as an indicator of
the peasant’s connections with the market, based on the assumption that
233
