Page 38 - 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. 38
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
time there is a difference to be pointed at. In fact, the integrated peasant
economy was designed to fit the pre-industrial period and it proved to be
applicable since the late Middle-Ages and through the Early Modern cen-
turies, while within our research the period of modern economic develop-
ment and industrialisation was seen as a challenge to the system, too. The
difference is that French historians consider pluriactivity a way to adapt to
conditions brought on by modernity, while we see the integrated peasant
economy as pre-existent and the 19th (and 20th) centuries as one of the ages
in which it existed and persisted, proving itself as an adequate conceptu-
al tool for analysing not only pre-industrial societies, but rural areas with-
in modernising and industrialising economies as well. Let’s just inciden-
tally notice how the aforementioned discussions among French and Italian
pluriactivity researchers implicitly shows how income integration practices
were present among peasants in a much wider area than the southern Al-
pine and mountain areas of Slovenia and Italy, which we have so far main-
ly addressed.
Recent rural historiography stresses how the Early-Modern and mod-
ern European peasant population showed a remarkable degree of econom-
ic activity and initiative, defining it as “agency,” for example in a southern
German case (Sreenivasan 2004), and “industriousness” in north-western
Europe (de Vries 2008). This means the peasant households represented
not only observers who would passively adapt to external conditions and
pressures, but were an active player in the wider sphere of production and
consumption. With the organisation of work and relationships within the
family they helped shape the social and economic processes and changes in
which they were involved not only as producers but also as consumers. Be-
cause of the rather high variety of activities in which the Slovenian, Italian,
and other European peasants engaged in, we may perhaps say that in doing
so they as well showed a remarkable degree of economic “agency” and even
“industriousness.” Although “industriousness” implies a growing orienta-
tion towards consumer goods, by sustaining this I do not necessarily mean
that in the Early Modern Slovenian or southern Alpine rural society in gen-
eral (including Italy) there was a significant orientation towards acquiring
consumer goods or satisfying modern consumer needs,12 but more simply
that this term may be applied to such economies too. What I think may be
noticed in a wider rural economic landscape than western Europe alone,
12 Although such cases are documented, like in 18th century Tuscany, Malanima 1990,
135–63. For a recent critical comment on the industrious revolution and the “indus-
triousness discourse” in historical scholarship, see Litvine 2014.
36
time there is a difference to be pointed at. In fact, the integrated peasant
economy was designed to fit the pre-industrial period and it proved to be
applicable since the late Middle-Ages and through the Early Modern cen-
turies, while within our research the period of modern economic develop-
ment and industrialisation was seen as a challenge to the system, too. The
difference is that French historians consider pluriactivity a way to adapt to
conditions brought on by modernity, while we see the integrated peasant
economy as pre-existent and the 19th (and 20th) centuries as one of the ages
in which it existed and persisted, proving itself as an adequate conceptu-
al tool for analysing not only pre-industrial societies, but rural areas with-
in modernising and industrialising economies as well. Let’s just inciden-
tally notice how the aforementioned discussions among French and Italian
pluriactivity researchers implicitly shows how income integration practices
were present among peasants in a much wider area than the southern Al-
pine and mountain areas of Slovenia and Italy, which we have so far main-
ly addressed.
Recent rural historiography stresses how the Early-Modern and mod-
ern European peasant population showed a remarkable degree of econom-
ic activity and initiative, defining it as “agency,” for example in a southern
German case (Sreenivasan 2004), and “industriousness” in north-western
Europe (de Vries 2008). This means the peasant households represented
not only observers who would passively adapt to external conditions and
pressures, but were an active player in the wider sphere of production and
consumption. With the organisation of work and relationships within the
family they helped shape the social and economic processes and changes in
which they were involved not only as producers but also as consumers. Be-
cause of the rather high variety of activities in which the Slovenian, Italian,
and other European peasants engaged in, we may perhaps say that in doing
so they as well showed a remarkable degree of economic “agency” and even
“industriousness.” Although “industriousness” implies a growing orienta-
tion towards consumer goods, by sustaining this I do not necessarily mean
that in the Early Modern Slovenian or southern Alpine rural society in gen-
eral (including Italy) there was a significant orientation towards acquiring
consumer goods or satisfying modern consumer needs,12 but more simply
that this term may be applied to such economies too. What I think may be
noticed in a wider rural economic landscape than western Europe alone,
12 Although such cases are documented, like in 18th century Tuscany, Malanima 1990,
135–63. For a recent critical comment on the industrious revolution and the “indus-
triousness discourse” in historical scholarship, see Litvine 2014.
36
