Page 55 - 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. 55
peasant income integration in early modern slovenia: a historiographical review
and the trade routes which had connected Slovenian provinces with the
Adriatic and the Alpine region, and with Hungarian and Italian provinc-
es in modern times. He devoted a great deal of attention to the segment of
commercial activity that was the domain of the agrarian population, i.e.
to peasant trade in their own or in someone else’s produce and products,
transport and smuggling. He was also the first to define the terminology for
peasant and rural trade and transport activities. He came across the term
‘rural trade’ in archival sources from the mid-14th century, which “in the
broadest sense of the word meant any form of trade in the countryside, but
which contemporaries often used to denote peasant trade, namely that seg-
ment of rural trade which was controlled by subjects” (Gestrin 1973a, 73).
According to this definition, peasant trade is to be understood as the exclu-
sive activity of the agrarian population, whereas other classes were also in-
volved in rural trade. A more precise definition of peasant trade in modern
times was given by Jože Šorn. According to him, “we can speak of peasant
trade in the narrow sense of the word if a peasant was selling his own prod-
ucts; but when he was trading in citrus fruits, rice and similar goods and
supplying other goods in return, then he was imitating the long-distance
merchant and meddling in such transactions without being qualified to; in
the case of salt, it was the supply of a basic good” (Šorn 1984, 43). Gestrin
suggested the use of several terms when discussing peasant transport, since
subjects were engaged in transport activities in various ways. By developing
a market economy, they became involved in trade, at first with their sur-
plus products at fairs, town squares and over longer distances, and later on
partly with goods from the professional urban trade; they also transport-
ed their own goods, which he calls peasant transport (kmečko tovorništvo).
Peasants would transport goods for the professional urban trade against
payment, which thus became an important source of income for the rural
population. He calls this type of transport paid peasant transport (kmečko
plačano tovorništvo). In certain areas, subjects were obligated to carry out
transport activities as part of their duties to their landlords ever since the
Late Middle Ages, for which they exceptionally received some sort of com-
pensation or payment, which he calls forced labour transport (tlaško tovor-
ništvo) (Gestrin 1982a, 347).
Gestrin defined the development of peasant trade from the 13th centu-
ry to the Early Modern Era in two periods, which coincide with the periods
of the penetration of market relations into manors, and labels them the first
and second stage of the commercialisation of manors. In the first period,
53
and the trade routes which had connected Slovenian provinces with the
Adriatic and the Alpine region, and with Hungarian and Italian provinc-
es in modern times. He devoted a great deal of attention to the segment of
commercial activity that was the domain of the agrarian population, i.e.
to peasant trade in their own or in someone else’s produce and products,
transport and smuggling. He was also the first to define the terminology for
peasant and rural trade and transport activities. He came across the term
‘rural trade’ in archival sources from the mid-14th century, which “in the
broadest sense of the word meant any form of trade in the countryside, but
which contemporaries often used to denote peasant trade, namely that seg-
ment of rural trade which was controlled by subjects” (Gestrin 1973a, 73).
According to this definition, peasant trade is to be understood as the exclu-
sive activity of the agrarian population, whereas other classes were also in-
volved in rural trade. A more precise definition of peasant trade in modern
times was given by Jože Šorn. According to him, “we can speak of peasant
trade in the narrow sense of the word if a peasant was selling his own prod-
ucts; but when he was trading in citrus fruits, rice and similar goods and
supplying other goods in return, then he was imitating the long-distance
merchant and meddling in such transactions without being qualified to; in
the case of salt, it was the supply of a basic good” (Šorn 1984, 43). Gestrin
suggested the use of several terms when discussing peasant transport, since
subjects were engaged in transport activities in various ways. By developing
a market economy, they became involved in trade, at first with their sur-
plus products at fairs, town squares and over longer distances, and later on
partly with goods from the professional urban trade; they also transport-
ed their own goods, which he calls peasant transport (kmečko tovorništvo).
Peasants would transport goods for the professional urban trade against
payment, which thus became an important source of income for the rural
population. He calls this type of transport paid peasant transport (kmečko
plačano tovorništvo). In certain areas, subjects were obligated to carry out
transport activities as part of their duties to their landlords ever since the
Late Middle Ages, for which they exceptionally received some sort of com-
pensation or payment, which he calls forced labour transport (tlaško tovor-
ništvo) (Gestrin 1982a, 347).
Gestrin defined the development of peasant trade from the 13th centu-
ry to the Early Modern Era in two periods, which coincide with the periods
of the penetration of market relations into manors, and labels them the first
and second stage of the commercialisation of manors. In the first period,
53
