Page 26 - 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. 26
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Gauro Coppola named “integrated economy” – although only in the ti-
tle of an (enlightening though synthetic) article in which he put it in rela-
tion with the “scarcity of resources” – such “integrated economy” ensured
“economic equilibrium” also when facing “transformations” (Coppola 1991,
203). His basic premise is that considering the character and conditions in
agriculture, “at a macro level, related to the total number of the popula-
tion,” the Alpine area suffered from a “chronic alimentary deficit, especial-
ly of grain.” Coppola suggests that if such a “system stands,” “it means that
the income integrations from other activities and sectors are of much great-
er importance than the cultivation of the fields alone.” In the Alpine econ-
omy there was a “complex balance,” in which the density of single activities
could vary in space and time. “The organic complementarity of the produc-
tion sectors, the safeguard and the integration of the resources, the process-
es of substitution of the more fragile and weakened portions of the whole”
have, as a result, “a system that is able to ensure proportionate processes of
income formation” and make “adjustments to the changes in market con-
ditions.” In the Alpine and Subalpine economy “the forms of integration
acquire primary support functions, granting the solidity of the context”
(Coppola 1991, 213–4, 221–2). Apart from the transparent similarities with
the Slovenian case, an important accent in Coppola’s reading is that the
Alpine “integrated economy” maintained a higher level of population by
keeping a balance between many different income sources, a balance that
was flexible enough not only to adjust to changes in market conditions, but
even to wider changes in the ratio between population number and avail-
able (natural and market) sources of income. Activities could be adopted
or abandoned, increased or decreased, and their relative importance in the
peasant household’s income structure could change in time (and space, of
course). But in any case did “the income integrations from other activities
and sectors” maintain their fundamental role.
Integrated peasant economy is the concept being proposed here for
such a reality. It is an economy in which peasant populations and house-
holds made their living by combining self-consumption agriculture with
market oriented activities. In fact, even agricultural activities may have
been (at least partly) market oriented. The second characteristic is that ag-
riculture did not necessarily represent its basis, nor were the market ori-
ented activities simply supplementary. This means that agricultural pro-
duction aimed at self-consumption was not necessarily the basis of the
peasant household economy, and that market activities represented a basi-
24
Gauro Coppola named “integrated economy” – although only in the ti-
tle of an (enlightening though synthetic) article in which he put it in rela-
tion with the “scarcity of resources” – such “integrated economy” ensured
“economic equilibrium” also when facing “transformations” (Coppola 1991,
203). His basic premise is that considering the character and conditions in
agriculture, “at a macro level, related to the total number of the popula-
tion,” the Alpine area suffered from a “chronic alimentary deficit, especial-
ly of grain.” Coppola suggests that if such a “system stands,” “it means that
the income integrations from other activities and sectors are of much great-
er importance than the cultivation of the fields alone.” In the Alpine econ-
omy there was a “complex balance,” in which the density of single activities
could vary in space and time. “The organic complementarity of the produc-
tion sectors, the safeguard and the integration of the resources, the process-
es of substitution of the more fragile and weakened portions of the whole”
have, as a result, “a system that is able to ensure proportionate processes of
income formation” and make “adjustments to the changes in market con-
ditions.” In the Alpine and Subalpine economy “the forms of integration
acquire primary support functions, granting the solidity of the context”
(Coppola 1991, 213–4, 221–2). Apart from the transparent similarities with
the Slovenian case, an important accent in Coppola’s reading is that the
Alpine “integrated economy” maintained a higher level of population by
keeping a balance between many different income sources, a balance that
was flexible enough not only to adjust to changes in market conditions, but
even to wider changes in the ratio between population number and avail-
able (natural and market) sources of income. Activities could be adopted
or abandoned, increased or decreased, and their relative importance in the
peasant household’s income structure could change in time (and space, of
course). But in any case did “the income integrations from other activities
and sectors” maintain their fundamental role.
Integrated peasant economy is the concept being proposed here for
such a reality. It is an economy in which peasant populations and house-
holds made their living by combining self-consumption agriculture with
market oriented activities. In fact, even agricultural activities may have
been (at least partly) market oriented. The second characteristic is that ag-
riculture did not necessarily represent its basis, nor were the market ori-
ented activities simply supplementary. This means that agricultural pro-
duction aimed at self-consumption was not necessarily the basis of the
peasant household economy, and that market activities represented a basi-
24
