Page 14 - Changing Living Spaces

Satosthi Murayama

constant. As can be seen from figure 2, which shows the annual growth
rate of farm size, the change seems to have been observed only since the
1980s.
The history of farm size in Hesse may give us an opportunity to re-
flect on what issues we should focus on in the countries where small-scale
farming still exists. First and foremost, we should not overstate the dif-
ferences noted in figure 1, because small-scale farming was prevalent un-
til the end of World War II even in areas where large-scale farms dominate
today. There must be a reason why the small farming families survived.
Moreover, the process of their gradual decline should be analysed. Living
Spaces determined by ecological and climatic conditions would be spa-
tially differentiated; therefore, the optimal size of farmland could vary
depending on farmers’ choice of agricultural products. Could consumer
demand and technological development or economic growth be determi-
nants of farm size?
The case of Japan may be typical, but it is only in recent years that the
old way of small farming and the traditional way of life are disappear-
ing along with their hydrological and environmental base. The devasta-
tion of mountain villages in Japan is particularly severe as the country
becomes a society of declining population, driven by a falling birth rate
and an aging population. Sen’s point quoted at the beginning of this arti-
cle is correct. However, the argument that the old historical period or the
Industrial Revolution is the key to the transformation of the working en-
vironment and living standards has been challenged by new economic his-
tory research findings in recent years. The dramatic changes in the Living
Spaces in mind may be found in much later periods. Once again, it is time
to question the meaning of long-term economic growth.
Osamu Saito2 considers four factors of economic growth in the early
modern period – capital, division of labour, technology, and population –
as stated by J. Mokyr. These factors affect the elements of Living Spaces:
the settlements of the inhabitants, the agricultural fields, the forests, the
rivers and the mountains, the network of economic resources, and the
transportation system. Let us restate these four factors: (1) How was cap-
ital accumulated and what was its relationship to economic growth? (2)

2 Saito (2010, 4): ‘By “Smithian growth”, however, I mean something different
from Joel Mokyr’s definition, which embraces both static and dynamic gains.
Also, Mokyr denotes just one source of economic growth, others being Solovian,
Shumpeterian, and Boserupian: with this typology, one can periodize history as
moving from the Malthusian to the Smithian, then on to the Shumpeterian.’

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