Page 390 - 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. 390
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
dependence from exogenous factors could become a reason of weakness,
as the changes in the 19th century clearly showed. At that time the house-
hold income strategies dramatically changed because of the improvement
of the railways, the development of new modern enterprises on the Lom-
bard plain, the introduction of new agrarian machines and the agrarian
crisis of the 1880s, the laws which favoured the privatisation of the common
lands and strongly reduced the local credit market.
All the strategies followed by the Alpine families in fact depended on
the relationships and exchanges that Alpine villages were able to develop
with the plain. This obviously became very difficult when the best factories
of the plain became very strong competitors of the Alpine manufactures
and when the best dairy producers decided to leave the Lombard valleys
and to create their new factories on the plain. Besides, the success of these
strategies was also related to the existence of institutions and laws which
helped the economy of the Alpine valleys: the elimination of the common
land and fiscal privileges made it more difficult to live and produce in a lot
of the Lombard Alpine villages.
All this created a strong selection in the Alpine manufactures and re-
duced the possibility for Alpine people to continue to work in the native
valleys and to find seasonal work outside: so only a few valleys could main-
tain their economic and demographic equilibrium in the age of Lombard
industrialisation, that was in the early 20th century.
Bibliography
Archival sources
ASB: Archivio di Stato di Brescia.
IRDP: Imperial Regia Delegazione Provinciale.
Notarile di Brescia.
Notarile di Salò.
Petizioni d’estimo.
ASM: Archivio di Stato di Milano.
Agricoltura p.m.: Agricoltura parte moderna.
Catasto Lombardo-Veneto.
388
dependence from exogenous factors could become a reason of weakness,
as the changes in the 19th century clearly showed. At that time the house-
hold income strategies dramatically changed because of the improvement
of the railways, the development of new modern enterprises on the Lom-
bard plain, the introduction of new agrarian machines and the agrarian
crisis of the 1880s, the laws which favoured the privatisation of the common
lands and strongly reduced the local credit market.
All the strategies followed by the Alpine families in fact depended on
the relationships and exchanges that Alpine villages were able to develop
with the plain. This obviously became very difficult when the best factories
of the plain became very strong competitors of the Alpine manufactures
and when the best dairy producers decided to leave the Lombard valleys
and to create their new factories on the plain. Besides, the success of these
strategies was also related to the existence of institutions and laws which
helped the economy of the Alpine valleys: the elimination of the common
land and fiscal privileges made it more difficult to live and produce in a lot
of the Lombard Alpine villages.
All this created a strong selection in the Alpine manufactures and re-
duced the possibility for Alpine people to continue to work in the native
valleys and to find seasonal work outside: so only a few valleys could main-
tain their economic and demographic equilibrium in the age of Lombard
industrialisation, that was in the early 20th century.
Bibliography
Archival sources
ASB: Archivio di Stato di Brescia.
IRDP: Imperial Regia Delegazione Provinciale.
Notarile di Brescia.
Notarile di Salò.
Petizioni d’estimo.
ASM: Archivio di Stato di Milano.
Agricoltura p.m.: Agricoltura parte moderna.
Catasto Lombardo-Veneto.
388
