Page 238 - 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. 238
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
33). This means the local peasant population traded and smuggled on their
own and imported produce on local, interregional, as well as cross-border
routes.
Information on this theme becomes quite richer and more precise in
the second part of the 18th century, both due to a wider range of descrip-
tions and because of the contemporary growth of the Trieste urban mar-
ket. Some qualified contemporary observers, such as public administrators
and visitors may come to our aid with their reports about the agriculture
and peasant economy in the Karst villages at that time. Pasquale Ricci in
1769 wrote how “much of the land has such a stony ground that just pro-
duces a sparse grass, which never reaches the degree of hay.” He expressed
the opinion that it was “an admirable thing” to see “the hard work, and art,
with which the peasants make good use of every inch of land susceptible of
cultivation; here sprouts wheat, and there comes up wine, where before the
rocks have been giving birth to stones; [...] and these small plots of stony
soil converted into fields multiply daily” (Lago 1980, 499). Because of the
low fertility of the land, G. P. Baselli in 1775 meant that the Karst peasants
“do not have a constant work from their activity, nor do they derive suffi-
cient food” from agriculture only. That is why “they are forced to live dis-
tilling coal and raising livestock, which provides them with butter, cheese
and a bit of wool. [...] They produce the butter and cheese with which they
supply the province” (Cavazza, Iancis, and Porcedda 2003, 175–7). A trav-
eller named B. F. J. Hermann in 1780 left notice of the fact that “the sheep
and goats of the Karst have a very tasty meat, because they graze the thou-
sand alpine herbs; almost all of the lambs are sent to Venice, where they
are sold at surprisingly high prices.”4 A general of Napoleon’s in 1797 wrote
that “it is amazing to see how people have been able to turn that land to ag-
ricultural use [...,] with care and diligence they have tilled the rocks mak-
ing walls out of them, so that pieces of land a few steps long, form fields
large like the palm of a hand” (Davis 1986, 12). The Trieste police chief P.
A. Pittoni in 1786 left a very vivid description, concentrating on the villag-
es nearest to the town, emphasising both the close connection of the Karst
peasant economy with the contemporary growing urban market oppor-
tunities through diverse activities, and the relevant fact that income in-
tegration was not simply a matter of subsistence and survival, but also a
path that enabled peasants to raise their living standards. That is why we’re
quoting him more extensively:
4 Shaw 2000, 79, as cited in Panjek 2015b, 29.
236
33). This means the local peasant population traded and smuggled on their
own and imported produce on local, interregional, as well as cross-border
routes.
Information on this theme becomes quite richer and more precise in
the second part of the 18th century, both due to a wider range of descrip-
tions and because of the contemporary growth of the Trieste urban mar-
ket. Some qualified contemporary observers, such as public administrators
and visitors may come to our aid with their reports about the agriculture
and peasant economy in the Karst villages at that time. Pasquale Ricci in
1769 wrote how “much of the land has such a stony ground that just pro-
duces a sparse grass, which never reaches the degree of hay.” He expressed
the opinion that it was “an admirable thing” to see “the hard work, and art,
with which the peasants make good use of every inch of land susceptible of
cultivation; here sprouts wheat, and there comes up wine, where before the
rocks have been giving birth to stones; [...] and these small plots of stony
soil converted into fields multiply daily” (Lago 1980, 499). Because of the
low fertility of the land, G. P. Baselli in 1775 meant that the Karst peasants
“do not have a constant work from their activity, nor do they derive suffi-
cient food” from agriculture only. That is why “they are forced to live dis-
tilling coal and raising livestock, which provides them with butter, cheese
and a bit of wool. [...] They produce the butter and cheese with which they
supply the province” (Cavazza, Iancis, and Porcedda 2003, 175–7). A trav-
eller named B. F. J. Hermann in 1780 left notice of the fact that “the sheep
and goats of the Karst have a very tasty meat, because they graze the thou-
sand alpine herbs; almost all of the lambs are sent to Venice, where they
are sold at surprisingly high prices.”4 A general of Napoleon’s in 1797 wrote
that “it is amazing to see how people have been able to turn that land to ag-
ricultural use [...,] with care and diligence they have tilled the rocks mak-
ing walls out of them, so that pieces of land a few steps long, form fields
large like the palm of a hand” (Davis 1986, 12). The Trieste police chief P.
A. Pittoni in 1786 left a very vivid description, concentrating on the villag-
es nearest to the town, emphasising both the close connection of the Karst
peasant economy with the contemporary growing urban market oppor-
tunities through diverse activities, and the relevant fact that income in-
tegration was not simply a matter of subsistence and survival, but also a
path that enabled peasants to raise their living standards. That is why we’re
quoting him more extensively:
4 Shaw 2000, 79, as cited in Panjek 2015b, 29.
236
