Page 379 - 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. 379
household income str ategies in the lombar d valleys ...
take off at the end of the 19th century on the IPE. At the same time the IPE
permits to show some aspects of the changes concerning a developed re-
gion such as Lombardy, where the development of manufactures can be
only in part explained by the typical model of a cereal and textile produc-
ing region (those on which the proto-industrial theory was modelled)2 be-
cause in Lombardy very different specialised cultivations (mulberry trees,
linen, vines, citrus fruit, olives) were added to the cereals, granting rele-
vant earnings and orienting the relationship between agriculture and a lot
of different manufacturing activities.
Besides the presence of the classic putting-out system, typical of the
textile productive system, there in fact existed some important transforma-
tion activities with a centralised manufacturing system. So there did not
exist a real diffused proto-industry, but some manufactures which had di-
versified high quality productions and were fully integrated within the pri-
mary sector. It is important to note that a lot of them, even if they found
their main markets in the Lombard towns (in particular for the hand man-
ufactured products made of iron, brass, wood etc.), remained concentrat-
ed in the mountainous belt where they could easily dispose of raw materi-
als, wood and water (energy sources).3 The countryside was strictly linked
to the economy of the Lombard towns too: in the first half of the 19th centu-
ry, it in fact achieved, full agrarian and commercial equilibrium which also
included some high value added products arriving from the valleys (such as
the dairy products and the mulberry leaves for silk-cocoons).4
This means that Alpine productions were important for the Lombard
economy as a whole and, until new technologies strongly changed the eco-
nomic context, the regional social and economic equilibrium depended
also on the demographic and economic equilibrium in its Alpine villages.
2 The issue is widely discussed in Dewerpe 1985. But see also, with special regards to
the household income strategies in the Italian family in the long run, Bull and Cor-
ner 1993.
3 About the Lombard economic development from the Early Modern period onward
and in particular during the 19th century see, among other, Zaninelli 1988–1990;
Cafagna 1989c; Merzario 1989; Carera 1996; Mocarelli 2001; Carera 2002; Romano
2012; Conca Messina 2016.
4 About the relationship between agriculture and the other economic sectors see Ro-
mani 1957, 57–76, 81–5, and 1963, 3–161; Cafagna 1989b; Cova 1977; Moioli 1978; Za-
ninelli 1979; Faccini 1986, 308–17, 381–409, 707–49; Della Peruta 1996, 95–126; Te-
deschi 2006; 2008a; 2013a.
377
take off at the end of the 19th century on the IPE. At the same time the IPE
permits to show some aspects of the changes concerning a developed re-
gion such as Lombardy, where the development of manufactures can be
only in part explained by the typical model of a cereal and textile produc-
ing region (those on which the proto-industrial theory was modelled)2 be-
cause in Lombardy very different specialised cultivations (mulberry trees,
linen, vines, citrus fruit, olives) were added to the cereals, granting rele-
vant earnings and orienting the relationship between agriculture and a lot
of different manufacturing activities.
Besides the presence of the classic putting-out system, typical of the
textile productive system, there in fact existed some important transforma-
tion activities with a centralised manufacturing system. So there did not
exist a real diffused proto-industry, but some manufactures which had di-
versified high quality productions and were fully integrated within the pri-
mary sector. It is important to note that a lot of them, even if they found
their main markets in the Lombard towns (in particular for the hand man-
ufactured products made of iron, brass, wood etc.), remained concentrat-
ed in the mountainous belt where they could easily dispose of raw materi-
als, wood and water (energy sources).3 The countryside was strictly linked
to the economy of the Lombard towns too: in the first half of the 19th centu-
ry, it in fact achieved, full agrarian and commercial equilibrium which also
included some high value added products arriving from the valleys (such as
the dairy products and the mulberry leaves for silk-cocoons).4
This means that Alpine productions were important for the Lombard
economy as a whole and, until new technologies strongly changed the eco-
nomic context, the regional social and economic equilibrium depended
also on the demographic and economic equilibrium in its Alpine villages.
2 The issue is widely discussed in Dewerpe 1985. But see also, with special regards to
the household income strategies in the Italian family in the long run, Bull and Cor-
ner 1993.
3 About the Lombard economic development from the Early Modern period onward
and in particular during the 19th century see, among other, Zaninelli 1988–1990;
Cafagna 1989c; Merzario 1989; Carera 1996; Mocarelli 2001; Carera 2002; Romano
2012; Conca Messina 2016.
4 About the relationship between agriculture and the other economic sectors see Ro-
mani 1957, 57–76, 81–5, and 1963, 3–161; Cafagna 1989b; Cova 1977; Moioli 1978; Za-
ninelli 1979; Faccini 1986, 308–17, 381–409, 707–49; Della Peruta 1996, 95–126; Te-
deschi 2006; 2008a; 2013a.
377
