Page 388 - 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. 388
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
ura (they could collect all seeds remaining after the harvest). They also had
the right to collect leaves (used to prepare bedding for cattle), stones (used
for building) and wild vegetables and fruits (such as berries, walnuts and
chestnuts). Because of the privatisation or rent of the common land all these
rights disappeared and they were not entirely substituted by the public sub-
sidies, in particular when the negative economic trend reduced the incomes
of the communities. When the Italian government understood that moun-
tains needed special laws and decided to help the valleys (e.g. it established
new laws to develop the Alpine pastures and to protect the woods by the ex-
cessive exploitation which destroyed them because new trees had no time
to grow up) it was too late: a lot of families had already gone to find better
living conditions outside of the valleys while, at the same time, the earnings
linked to pastures and woods needed many years to get back to the previ-
ous yields (Tedeschi 2011; 2013b; 2014).
Lastly, the Italian government’s decision, in the 1860s, concerning
the abolition of most ecclesiastic institutions and the sales of their assets,
strongly reduced the loans which manufactures (in particular in the East-
ern Lombard valleys) received by the local luoghi pii (the ecclesiastical in-
stitutions who lent money to Alpine families and workshops): in the better
cases the luoghi pii only had to pay a new tax which reduced by 30% their
patrimony and this obviously reduced their capability for lending money.
When the first cooperative banks arrived in the valleys to replace the luoghi
pii in the economy of the eastern Lombard valleys, a lot of people had al-
ready sold their land or workshop and left their native villages to find a
job on the plain where new industrial enterprises were born (Cafaro 2000;
2002; Tedeschi 2015).
All this explains why the IPE was not able to satisfy all the Alpine
families’ needs anymore. Even if people had diversified professional skills,
many jobs disappeared and it was not possible to substitute them without
the recourse to a long and often permanent migration out of the native val-
leys.
Only the Alpine villages where the iron or brass or textile manufac-
tures were able to produce high quality goods in some particular market
niches (such as cutlery, hand tools, weapons, etc.): they remained competi-
tive face to the enterprises of the plain thanks to their high quality-price ra-
tio. Such villages could maintain most of their inhabitants who did not have
to emigrate and they progressively developed real industrial districts pro-
ducing for the Italian and international markets (as in the cases of Lumez-
386
ura (they could collect all seeds remaining after the harvest). They also had
the right to collect leaves (used to prepare bedding for cattle), stones (used
for building) and wild vegetables and fruits (such as berries, walnuts and
chestnuts). Because of the privatisation or rent of the common land all these
rights disappeared and they were not entirely substituted by the public sub-
sidies, in particular when the negative economic trend reduced the incomes
of the communities. When the Italian government understood that moun-
tains needed special laws and decided to help the valleys (e.g. it established
new laws to develop the Alpine pastures and to protect the woods by the ex-
cessive exploitation which destroyed them because new trees had no time
to grow up) it was too late: a lot of families had already gone to find better
living conditions outside of the valleys while, at the same time, the earnings
linked to pastures and woods needed many years to get back to the previ-
ous yields (Tedeschi 2011; 2013b; 2014).
Lastly, the Italian government’s decision, in the 1860s, concerning
the abolition of most ecclesiastic institutions and the sales of their assets,
strongly reduced the loans which manufactures (in particular in the East-
ern Lombard valleys) received by the local luoghi pii (the ecclesiastical in-
stitutions who lent money to Alpine families and workshops): in the better
cases the luoghi pii only had to pay a new tax which reduced by 30% their
patrimony and this obviously reduced their capability for lending money.
When the first cooperative banks arrived in the valleys to replace the luoghi
pii in the economy of the eastern Lombard valleys, a lot of people had al-
ready sold their land or workshop and left their native villages to find a
job on the plain where new industrial enterprises were born (Cafaro 2000;
2002; Tedeschi 2015).
All this explains why the IPE was not able to satisfy all the Alpine
families’ needs anymore. Even if people had diversified professional skills,
many jobs disappeared and it was not possible to substitute them without
the recourse to a long and often permanent migration out of the native val-
leys.
Only the Alpine villages where the iron or brass or textile manufac-
tures were able to produce high quality goods in some particular market
niches (such as cutlery, hand tools, weapons, etc.): they remained competi-
tive face to the enterprises of the plain thanks to their high quality-price ra-
tio. Such villages could maintain most of their inhabitants who did not have
to emigrate and they progressively developed real industrial districts pro-
ducing for the Italian and international markets (as in the cases of Lumez-
386
