Page 68 - 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. 68
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
They used it for making farming tools and equipment for domestic use, and
for making woodenware to sell (Panjek 2015b, 107). In addition to the glass
workshops (glažute), another consumer of the wood from the forests of the
Gorizia and Posočje regions were the ironworks operating in the Bovec re-
gion and in the towns of Ajdovščina and Idrija. The area had a highly de-
veloped wood trade, which was connected mostly with the towns of Udine,
Gorizia and Trieste. As peasants-foresters, the inhabitants of Trnovski gozd
earned much of their income from felling, transportation (horse and cart
drivers called furmani) and selling wood to Gorizia (Panjek 2015b, 110–1;
Kolenc 2012, 206).
In the Gorizia region, sericulture developed greatly as an industrial
activity, for which wood was an important energy source; it was connect-
ed with activities that were mostly present in the countryside in the form of
the domestic system (Panjek 2015a, 103–5). In the 18th century, the rearing of
silkworms became “in addition to viticulture, an important branch of agri-
culture in the County of Gradisca and in a segment of the County of Gor-
ica;” it was mostly carried out by the “poor inhabitants of villages” (Žontar
1957, 16). At first, peasants bought the mulberry leaves with which they fed
the silkworms, thus incurring great debts in the process. Hence the state
began to encourage landlords to order and enable peasants to plant mulber-
ry trees on their plots; in turn, it exempted the peasants from paying trib-
utes for such activities and promised them rewards. The ban by count At-
tems in the village of Križ, which in 1768 prohibited subjects from sending
their children to work in the workshops of Gorica, indicates that the chil-
dren of the peasant population also worked in silk spinneries (Žontar 1957,
54–5, 70, 76); the work in spinneries was otherwise mostly carried out by
foreign skilled workers/silk manufacturers.
Another activity that was rather widespread in these parts was smug-
gling. According to Panjek, it was “an integral part of transport and a uni-
versal phenomenon.” Especially lively was the cross-border smuggling of
livestock. How it was carried out can be discerned from the memorandum
of Carniolan towns of 1548:
When they take a horse to Italy, they strap a small load on it, as if
they were getting wine or salt. […] But when they arrive to the Re-
public of Venice, they sell the horse with the cargo. […] In the vi-
cinity of the Venetian border, the landlords give peasants permits
for the money, claiming that they need it for their households. Thus
peasants drove oxen and small cattle without paying the toll, and
66
They used it for making farming tools and equipment for domestic use, and
for making woodenware to sell (Panjek 2015b, 107). In addition to the glass
workshops (glažute), another consumer of the wood from the forests of the
Gorizia and Posočje regions were the ironworks operating in the Bovec re-
gion and in the towns of Ajdovščina and Idrija. The area had a highly de-
veloped wood trade, which was connected mostly with the towns of Udine,
Gorizia and Trieste. As peasants-foresters, the inhabitants of Trnovski gozd
earned much of their income from felling, transportation (horse and cart
drivers called furmani) and selling wood to Gorizia (Panjek 2015b, 110–1;
Kolenc 2012, 206).
In the Gorizia region, sericulture developed greatly as an industrial
activity, for which wood was an important energy source; it was connect-
ed with activities that were mostly present in the countryside in the form of
the domestic system (Panjek 2015a, 103–5). In the 18th century, the rearing of
silkworms became “in addition to viticulture, an important branch of agri-
culture in the County of Gradisca and in a segment of the County of Gor-
ica;” it was mostly carried out by the “poor inhabitants of villages” (Žontar
1957, 16). At first, peasants bought the mulberry leaves with which they fed
the silkworms, thus incurring great debts in the process. Hence the state
began to encourage landlords to order and enable peasants to plant mulber-
ry trees on their plots; in turn, it exempted the peasants from paying trib-
utes for such activities and promised them rewards. The ban by count At-
tems in the village of Križ, which in 1768 prohibited subjects from sending
their children to work in the workshops of Gorica, indicates that the chil-
dren of the peasant population also worked in silk spinneries (Žontar 1957,
54–5, 70, 76); the work in spinneries was otherwise mostly carried out by
foreign skilled workers/silk manufacturers.
Another activity that was rather widespread in these parts was smug-
gling. According to Panjek, it was “an integral part of transport and a uni-
versal phenomenon.” Especially lively was the cross-border smuggling of
livestock. How it was carried out can be discerned from the memorandum
of Carniolan towns of 1548:
When they take a horse to Italy, they strap a small load on it, as if
they were getting wine or salt. […] But when they arrive to the Re-
public of Venice, they sell the horse with the cargo. […] In the vi-
cinity of the Venetian border, the landlords give peasants permits
for the money, claiming that they need it for their households. Thus
peasants drove oxen and small cattle without paying the toll, and
66
