Page 27 - 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. 27
the integrated peasant economy as a concept in progress
cally equal income source. Of fundamental importance is the third char-
acter distinguishing the integrated peasant economy, that represents also
the reason why we named this system integrated – the fact that it integrat-
ed activities and income sources from all three economic sectors togeth-
er, the primary, secondary and tertiary. This means we are not simply cop-
ing with peasants who consumed their own produce and additionally did
some industry in winter months (although they fit in the concept, too), or
engaged in some additional activity in bad harvest years, but with peasant
households that systematically used the plough (or shovel only), engaged
in crafts and hit the roads, their income sources ranging from working as
day labourers in agriculture to illegal trafficking, passing through indus-
trial and transport activities. Lastly, something that is perhaps more of a
consequence than a character, but it nevertheless constitutes a distinctive
characteristic of the integrated peasant economy: it enabled rural socie-
ties to overcome natural and technical limits, and to significantly raise the
carrying-capacity of the environment they lived in, since it allowed sus-
taining a population beyond the level that would have been possible based
solely on agricultural land and the self-consumption of its produce. We
may well add a feature stressed by Coppola, that is the flexibility of the sys-
tem, meaning that single activities could be adopted, increased, decreased
or abandoned, while their role in the peasant household’s income struc-
ture could change through time and space. On this basis, a first list of fea-
tures characterising the integrated peasant economy was sketched (Pan-
jek 2015, 203–4):
1. Peasants combine agriculture and market oriented activities to
make their living.
2. Market oriented activities represent an equal income source com-
pared to subsistence agriculture.
3. The adopted activities and income sources belong to the three
economic sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary).
4. The system is dynamic and flexible, adapts to changes in the avail-
ability of income sources and the market conditions, in the popu-
lation and in family structure.
5. The carrying capacity of the environment is increased beyond the
level of the population possibly based on agricultural land alone.
25
cally equal income source. Of fundamental importance is the third char-
acter distinguishing the integrated peasant economy, that represents also
the reason why we named this system integrated – the fact that it integrat-
ed activities and income sources from all three economic sectors togeth-
er, the primary, secondary and tertiary. This means we are not simply cop-
ing with peasants who consumed their own produce and additionally did
some industry in winter months (although they fit in the concept, too), or
engaged in some additional activity in bad harvest years, but with peasant
households that systematically used the plough (or shovel only), engaged
in crafts and hit the roads, their income sources ranging from working as
day labourers in agriculture to illegal trafficking, passing through indus-
trial and transport activities. Lastly, something that is perhaps more of a
consequence than a character, but it nevertheless constitutes a distinctive
characteristic of the integrated peasant economy: it enabled rural socie-
ties to overcome natural and technical limits, and to significantly raise the
carrying-capacity of the environment they lived in, since it allowed sus-
taining a population beyond the level that would have been possible based
solely on agricultural land and the self-consumption of its produce. We
may well add a feature stressed by Coppola, that is the flexibility of the sys-
tem, meaning that single activities could be adopted, increased, decreased
or abandoned, while their role in the peasant household’s income struc-
ture could change through time and space. On this basis, a first list of fea-
tures characterising the integrated peasant economy was sketched (Pan-
jek 2015, 203–4):
1. Peasants combine agriculture and market oriented activities to
make their living.
2. Market oriented activities represent an equal income source com-
pared to subsistence agriculture.
3. The adopted activities and income sources belong to the three
economic sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary).
4. The system is dynamic and flexible, adapts to changes in the avail-
ability of income sources and the market conditions, in the popu-
lation and in family structure.
5. The carrying capacity of the environment is increased beyond the
level of the population possibly based on agricultural land alone.
25
