Page 240 - 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. 240
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
2. The customary real-estate purchase & sale among peasants
(around 1620)
In this search for tangible and quantifiable information on the peasant eco-
nomy, and possibly for evidence on the peasants’ agency, I stumbled upon a
process about the ownership of a small house with a wine-cellar in the Karst
village of Tomaj in 1619-20. It proved to reveal a rather surprising content:
a complex custom and ritual for real-estate buying and selling among pea-
sants, that was purely oral, with no written contracts or recording. This re-
velation was made possible by the opposing strategies adopted by the two
parties involved in the trial, both of whom claimed to be the legal owner
of the house and cellar: one side sustained its ownership upon the fact that
the other party did not have any written proof of their purchase, while the
other on the contrary asserted its acquisition was rightful, since it happe-
ned through the use and respect of the traditional customary regulations
and ritual, generally recognised among the local peasants. In the end the
manorial court jury, composed by the heads of the village communities,
confirmed the ownership to the party sustaining the validity of the cus-
tomary oral purchase. Without going into a detailed reconstruction of the
case and connected events, I’ll briefly outline the custom, distinguishing
between a ritual and a regulative part, before making some considerations.5
First of all the buyer and the seller had to reach an agreement on the
price, of course, but this aspect is not depicted in our source. The ritual and
regulations looked as follows:
a) The ritual of real-estate purchase & sale
1) The church bells ring, meaning the buyer is calling the village
people to the village square.
2) The community members gather on the square.
3) The buyer offers his neighbours some wine to drink (and bread
to eat) and they all drink together (this drinking part was named
likof, from the ancient Germanic Leit-Kauf, Vilfan 1996, 364); the
quantities are determined by the amount of the real-estate trans-
action.
4) During the likof (drinking together) the terms of the purchase &
sale are made public to all the present members of the communi-
5 AST, ATTA, b. 196.1, fasc. 6. A more detailed analysis and in-depth interpretation is
in Panjek 2016.
238
2. The customary real-estate purchase & sale among peasants
(around 1620)
In this search for tangible and quantifiable information on the peasant eco-
nomy, and possibly for evidence on the peasants’ agency, I stumbled upon a
process about the ownership of a small house with a wine-cellar in the Karst
village of Tomaj in 1619-20. It proved to reveal a rather surprising content:
a complex custom and ritual for real-estate buying and selling among pea-
sants, that was purely oral, with no written contracts or recording. This re-
velation was made possible by the opposing strategies adopted by the two
parties involved in the trial, both of whom claimed to be the legal owner
of the house and cellar: one side sustained its ownership upon the fact that
the other party did not have any written proof of their purchase, while the
other on the contrary asserted its acquisition was rightful, since it happe-
ned through the use and respect of the traditional customary regulations
and ritual, generally recognised among the local peasants. In the end the
manorial court jury, composed by the heads of the village communities,
confirmed the ownership to the party sustaining the validity of the cus-
tomary oral purchase. Without going into a detailed reconstruction of the
case and connected events, I’ll briefly outline the custom, distinguishing
between a ritual and a regulative part, before making some considerations.5
First of all the buyer and the seller had to reach an agreement on the
price, of course, but this aspect is not depicted in our source. The ritual and
regulations looked as follows:
a) The ritual of real-estate purchase & sale
1) The church bells ring, meaning the buyer is calling the village
people to the village square.
2) The community members gather on the square.
3) The buyer offers his neighbours some wine to drink (and bread
to eat) and they all drink together (this drinking part was named
likof, from the ancient Germanic Leit-Kauf, Vilfan 1996, 364); the
quantities are determined by the amount of the real-estate trans-
action.
4) During the likof (drinking together) the terms of the purchase &
sale are made public to all the present members of the communi-
5 AST, ATTA, b. 196.1, fasc. 6. A more detailed analysis and in-depth interpretation is
in Panjek 2016.
238
