Page 341 - 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. 341
peasant “economic industriousness” in slovenian ethnology (19th–20th centuries)
mon land, that brought about changes in animal breeding. Concerning the
land as the basic means for agricultural production, an important change
was the “land release” connected to the abolishment of the feudal regime
in the Austrian empire in 1848. Land release and other above listed changes
brought changes to individual branches of the peasant economy, for exam-
ple in fruit growing. A change that marks the transition into the 20th centu-
ry was the introduction of farm machinery.
In her overview of handicraft and crafts (rokodelstvo in obrt) Ljudmila
Bras (1988–1990, 207‒8) mentions the growing influence of the mercantil-
ism policy from the beginning of the 18th century. In 1732 guilds’ autonomy
derogated and in 1765 guilds’ rights were more reduced with the division
of crafts between the “commercial” for trade on long distances (more than
40 of them as commercial, for instance ironworking) and “police” ones
(policijske) meant for local needs (for instance pottery-making, printing,
shoe-making, joinery, carpentry etc.) Besides them there were also tax-free
crafts: spinning, and weaving. These ones were performed already earlier,
outside guilds, as “additional” peasant activities (Bras 1998–1990, 210‒14).
The year 1859 marked the end of guilds with a new law on craft with liberal
principles and uniform rules (Bras 1998–1990, 210; Bogataj 1989, 9).
According to the historical interpretation presented by the ethnologist
Ljudmila Bras (and Ivan Sedej too), the liberalism of the mercantilist pol-
icy had a negative influence on craftsmen. The state power was interested
in systematic industrialisation and it did not care for craftsmen. New man-
ufacture and industry plants were formed, while many craftsmen were re-
duced to poverty. The construction of the railway in 1857 brought the decay
of different transportation services such as transport by lorries (vozarst-
vo; see Novice kmetijskih, obertnijskih in narodskih reči, 1852‒53), boatmen,
inns etc. Foreign industrial products were cheaper. Domestic crafts which
used to bring modest earnings to peasant families, and the only income to
peasants without land, were disappearing. Evidence of these difficult con-
ditions was in the creation of an association (“fellowship”) for mutual fi-
nancial help among craftsmen, promoted also with an invitation to join it
in the newspaper Novice in 1857 (Bratovšina v denarno pomoč obertnikom
in rokodelcem v Ljubljani). The need for loans and savings banks was de-
tected in the same year in the same newspaper. In 1843 the journal Kmeti-
jske in rokodelske novice (“Agricultural and handicrafts news”) was creat-
ed as the first periodical journal for crafts and peasant matters in Slovenian
language, in an attempt to accelerate handicraft and domestic crafts (obrti
339
mon land, that brought about changes in animal breeding. Concerning the
land as the basic means for agricultural production, an important change
was the “land release” connected to the abolishment of the feudal regime
in the Austrian empire in 1848. Land release and other above listed changes
brought changes to individual branches of the peasant economy, for exam-
ple in fruit growing. A change that marks the transition into the 20th centu-
ry was the introduction of farm machinery.
In her overview of handicraft and crafts (rokodelstvo in obrt) Ljudmila
Bras (1988–1990, 207‒8) mentions the growing influence of the mercantil-
ism policy from the beginning of the 18th century. In 1732 guilds’ autonomy
derogated and in 1765 guilds’ rights were more reduced with the division
of crafts between the “commercial” for trade on long distances (more than
40 of them as commercial, for instance ironworking) and “police” ones
(policijske) meant for local needs (for instance pottery-making, printing,
shoe-making, joinery, carpentry etc.) Besides them there were also tax-free
crafts: spinning, and weaving. These ones were performed already earlier,
outside guilds, as “additional” peasant activities (Bras 1998–1990, 210‒14).
The year 1859 marked the end of guilds with a new law on craft with liberal
principles and uniform rules (Bras 1998–1990, 210; Bogataj 1989, 9).
According to the historical interpretation presented by the ethnologist
Ljudmila Bras (and Ivan Sedej too), the liberalism of the mercantilist pol-
icy had a negative influence on craftsmen. The state power was interested
in systematic industrialisation and it did not care for craftsmen. New man-
ufacture and industry plants were formed, while many craftsmen were re-
duced to poverty. The construction of the railway in 1857 brought the decay
of different transportation services such as transport by lorries (vozarst-
vo; see Novice kmetijskih, obertnijskih in narodskih reči, 1852‒53), boatmen,
inns etc. Foreign industrial products were cheaper. Domestic crafts which
used to bring modest earnings to peasant families, and the only income to
peasants without land, were disappearing. Evidence of these difficult con-
ditions was in the creation of an association (“fellowship”) for mutual fi-
nancial help among craftsmen, promoted also with an invitation to join it
in the newspaper Novice in 1857 (Bratovšina v denarno pomoč obertnikom
in rokodelcem v Ljubljani). The need for loans and savings banks was de-
tected in the same year in the same newspaper. In 1843 the journal Kmeti-
jske in rokodelske novice (“Agricultural and handicrafts news”) was creat-
ed as the first periodical journal for crafts and peasant matters in Slovenian
language, in an attempt to accelerate handicraft and domestic crafts (obrti
339
