Page 41 - 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. 41
the integrated peasant economy as a concept in progress
creasingly pushed to the market to sell their products as well as to buy addi-
tional products for survival” (Thoen 2001, 127, 131, 135, 137, 145). But probably
the most apparent divergence is that the commercial-survival economy is
intended as aiming at survival only, “social promotion in this kind of ru-
ral society is a myth” (Thoen 2001, 145), while the integrated peasant econ-
omy allows the peasants the chance to increase their economic prosperity,
improve their living standards and even the possibility of social promotion,
although this was not necessarily the case.
One of the fundamental questions regarding peasant economy, ad-
dressed by classical as well as contemporary scholarship, is indeed its eco-
nomic and social goal, so to say. Did the pre-industrial or Early Modern
European peasants strive for subsistence and survival only, or perhaps for
well-being, accumulation, increasing consumption, and profit too? And
what was the role they played and the influence they had on econom-
ic growth and development, if any?14 Let us express these same questions
more closely from our perspective: Did the integrated peasant economy re-
sult in wealth or poverty? Or perhaps it resulted in social sustainability,
which is in guaranteeing a sustainable living standard to the majority of the
local peasant population (that could be just another name for the “econom-
ic equilibrium” used by Italian scholars)? And, at last, how did the integrat-
ed peasant economy affect (modern) economic growth and development?
We’re leaving these questions open at the moment but I wish to underline
that we do not need the answers to be univocal in order to make the inte-
grated peasant economy concept work. Our case studies may anyway be
helpful in searching for answers.
4. The integrated peasant economy upgraded
The concept of integrated peasant economy with its features and list of acti-
vity fields has been put to the test by checking its applicability on a larger
sample of areas and realities within and outside the more circumscribed
area where it originated. Besides earlier presentations,15 comparisons and
14 A recent overview in Schuurman 2014.
15 International scientific conference Economic and Social History from Retrospective to
Perspective, Milko Kos Historical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Acad-
emy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, 16 November 2012 (Darja Mihelič org.); Work-
shop on factor markets and their impact on social and economic processes in Europe
between 1300 and 1800, Participation in rural land & credit markets and inequality, a
self-sustaining process? Ghent University, 25–26 April 2013 (Michael Limberger org.);
Rural History 2013 – International Conference European Rural History Organiza-
39
creasingly pushed to the market to sell their products as well as to buy addi-
tional products for survival” (Thoen 2001, 127, 131, 135, 137, 145). But probably
the most apparent divergence is that the commercial-survival economy is
intended as aiming at survival only, “social promotion in this kind of ru-
ral society is a myth” (Thoen 2001, 145), while the integrated peasant econ-
omy allows the peasants the chance to increase their economic prosperity,
improve their living standards and even the possibility of social promotion,
although this was not necessarily the case.
One of the fundamental questions regarding peasant economy, ad-
dressed by classical as well as contemporary scholarship, is indeed its eco-
nomic and social goal, so to say. Did the pre-industrial or Early Modern
European peasants strive for subsistence and survival only, or perhaps for
well-being, accumulation, increasing consumption, and profit too? And
what was the role they played and the influence they had on econom-
ic growth and development, if any?14 Let us express these same questions
more closely from our perspective: Did the integrated peasant economy re-
sult in wealth or poverty? Or perhaps it resulted in social sustainability,
which is in guaranteeing a sustainable living standard to the majority of the
local peasant population (that could be just another name for the “econom-
ic equilibrium” used by Italian scholars)? And, at last, how did the integrat-
ed peasant economy affect (modern) economic growth and development?
We’re leaving these questions open at the moment but I wish to underline
that we do not need the answers to be univocal in order to make the inte-
grated peasant economy concept work. Our case studies may anyway be
helpful in searching for answers.
4. The integrated peasant economy upgraded
The concept of integrated peasant economy with its features and list of acti-
vity fields has been put to the test by checking its applicability on a larger
sample of areas and realities within and outside the more circumscribed
area where it originated. Besides earlier presentations,15 comparisons and
14 A recent overview in Schuurman 2014.
15 International scientific conference Economic and Social History from Retrospective to
Perspective, Milko Kos Historical Institute, Research Centre of the Slovenian Acad-
emy of Sciences and Arts, Ljubljana, 16 November 2012 (Darja Mihelič org.); Work-
shop on factor markets and their impact on social and economic processes in Europe
between 1300 and 1800, Participation in rural land & credit markets and inequality, a
self-sustaining process? Ghent University, 25–26 April 2013 (Michael Limberger org.);
Rural History 2013 – International Conference European Rural History Organiza-
39
