Page 70 - 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. 70
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
2.3 Inner Carniola, Vipava Valley and the Karst
A road led from the east to Gorizia and onward to the Venetian Friuli
lowland via the Vipava Valley and Inner Carniola. Other paths branched
off in Inner Carniola, which led across the Karst region towards the coastal
towns of Trieste, Štivan (San Giovanni di Duino), Koper, Izola, Piran and
Reka (Fiume, Rijeka). Let us take a look at how the area of Inner Carnio-
la, the Vipava Valley and the Karst was described by Valvasor. In the Karst,
where “the soil is stony,” where there is “a shortage of wood” and water, and
where “they have no cereals and eat very dry bread,” but where “marvello-
us wine” matures, he mentions that “the most beautiful and noble grass”
grew there, which was used for grazing and rearing livestock. In the area of
Inner Carniola and the Karst he also noticed many carriers with horses. In
the village of (Zgornja) Pivka, many of the inhabitants made a living from
the wood they transported to the sea, where they made “all sorts of thin-
gs out of it that large ships needed.” In the Vipava Valley, the vine was thri-
ving, as was fruit; the wine which they produced was being sold at a profit
to “foreign provinces” (Valvasor 2009–2013, 263–5).
Due to their location on the route to the coastal towns, the most wide-
spread industries in Inner Carniola and the Karst, in which a great number
of peasants were engaged in, were trade, transport and smuggling. In Slo-
venian historiography, this topic has been researched the most by the pre-
viously mentioned Ferdo Gestrin (1962; 1969; 1963; 1986; and 1991). Peasant
trade in and transport of salt, wine and oil was conducted from the coastal
towns towards the interior of the provinces of Carniola, Styria and all the
way to Croatia. In the opposite direction, towards littoral towns, peasant
trade brought “all kinds of cereals and flour, livestock and meat products,
cheese and fat, hides and leather and home-made cloth and linen, hon-
ey and wax, wood and wooden products, and other products of the cot-
tage industry” (Gestrin 1965, 42). Peasants transported their own cereals or
someone else’s, which they had bought at markets, or transported and sold
products for landlords under forced labour transport. In the case of the Lo-
gatec manor, Voje has established that the most powerful cottager settle-
ments were situated along the Ljubljana – Trieste route, which indicates the
presence of transport activities. However, he has inferred that the cottag-
ers were used as carriers – day labourers for larger-farm owners (gruntarji),
who owned horses (Voje 1952–53, 661).
As has already been mentioned, fruit and vine also thrived in the Vipa-
va Valley and the Karst. Archival sources contain more information on the
68
2.3 Inner Carniola, Vipava Valley and the Karst
A road led from the east to Gorizia and onward to the Venetian Friuli
lowland via the Vipava Valley and Inner Carniola. Other paths branched
off in Inner Carniola, which led across the Karst region towards the coastal
towns of Trieste, Štivan (San Giovanni di Duino), Koper, Izola, Piran and
Reka (Fiume, Rijeka). Let us take a look at how the area of Inner Carnio-
la, the Vipava Valley and the Karst was described by Valvasor. In the Karst,
where “the soil is stony,” where there is “a shortage of wood” and water, and
where “they have no cereals and eat very dry bread,” but where “marvello-
us wine” matures, he mentions that “the most beautiful and noble grass”
grew there, which was used for grazing and rearing livestock. In the area of
Inner Carniola and the Karst he also noticed many carriers with horses. In
the village of (Zgornja) Pivka, many of the inhabitants made a living from
the wood they transported to the sea, where they made “all sorts of thin-
gs out of it that large ships needed.” In the Vipava Valley, the vine was thri-
ving, as was fruit; the wine which they produced was being sold at a profit
to “foreign provinces” (Valvasor 2009–2013, 263–5).
Due to their location on the route to the coastal towns, the most wide-
spread industries in Inner Carniola and the Karst, in which a great number
of peasants were engaged in, were trade, transport and smuggling. In Slo-
venian historiography, this topic has been researched the most by the pre-
viously mentioned Ferdo Gestrin (1962; 1969; 1963; 1986; and 1991). Peasant
trade in and transport of salt, wine and oil was conducted from the coastal
towns towards the interior of the provinces of Carniola, Styria and all the
way to Croatia. In the opposite direction, towards littoral towns, peasant
trade brought “all kinds of cereals and flour, livestock and meat products,
cheese and fat, hides and leather and home-made cloth and linen, hon-
ey and wax, wood and wooden products, and other products of the cot-
tage industry” (Gestrin 1965, 42). Peasants transported their own cereals or
someone else’s, which they had bought at markets, or transported and sold
products for landlords under forced labour transport. In the case of the Lo-
gatec manor, Voje has established that the most powerful cottager settle-
ments were situated along the Ljubljana – Trieste route, which indicates the
presence of transport activities. However, he has inferred that the cottag-
ers were used as carriers – day labourers for larger-farm owners (gruntarji),
who owned horses (Voje 1952–53, 661).
As has already been mentioned, fruit and vine also thrived in the Vipa-
va Valley and the Karst. Archival sources contain more information on the
68
