Page 384 - 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. 384
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
Map 16.2: Manufacturing activities in the Lombard Alps: 18th–19th centuries
the family. Finally, some Alpine families who owned very little land and
pastures could take a profit from the animal husbandry and home heating
thanks to the exploitation of common land. In Lombard valleys, in particu-
lar in the eastern ones, pastures and woods usually belonged to communi-
ties who determined by themselves the way of use and in particular gave
priority to the poorest families.
In general, the main activity of the family depended on its members’
skills: when the craftsman working in iron forges or paper mills realised
high quality products, his activity became so important that the owned land
was entrusted to wives and sons or, if these latter worked with the master, it
could also be rented out. Some members of the family in fact worked with
the master: in the forges, sons (or daughters’ husbands) learned the secret of
forging while in the paper industry the master’s wife and sons had unspe-
cialised tasks inside the paper mill such as the sorting of rags.10 In such cas-
es the whole family worked in the secondary sector and had no time for ag-
ricultural works: so the household income strategies allowed Alpine family
members to survive even without working in the primary sector. However,
10 About the cases of craftsman working in iron forges or paper mills see: Mocarel-
li 2005; Tedeschi 2008b.
382
Map 16.2: Manufacturing activities in the Lombard Alps: 18th–19th centuries
the family. Finally, some Alpine families who owned very little land and
pastures could take a profit from the animal husbandry and home heating
thanks to the exploitation of common land. In Lombard valleys, in particu-
lar in the eastern ones, pastures and woods usually belonged to communi-
ties who determined by themselves the way of use and in particular gave
priority to the poorest families.
In general, the main activity of the family depended on its members’
skills: when the craftsman working in iron forges or paper mills realised
high quality products, his activity became so important that the owned land
was entrusted to wives and sons or, if these latter worked with the master, it
could also be rented out. Some members of the family in fact worked with
the master: in the forges, sons (or daughters’ husbands) learned the secret of
forging while in the paper industry the master’s wife and sons had unspe-
cialised tasks inside the paper mill such as the sorting of rags.10 In such cas-
es the whole family worked in the secondary sector and had no time for ag-
ricultural works: so the household income strategies allowed Alpine family
members to survive even without working in the primary sector. However,
10 About the cases of craftsman working in iron forges or paper mills see: Mocarel-
li 2005; Tedeschi 2008b.
382
