Page 37 - Changing Living Spaces

The Privatization of the Common Real Estate in Lombard Alpine Valleys

common real estate and to evaluate the real needs of the poor families.
To secure more fruits for all villagers, it was necessary to increase pro-
duction and yields. However, most Alpine communal lands were on soils
of poor quality or had limited exposure to sunlight during the day (a few
hours or not at all in the colder months), so the real improvements asso-
ciated with expensive investments were generally small.
The division of the fruits from the use of the common real estate con-
stituted only a part of the budget of the Alpine families. Most Alpine peo-
ple survived thanks to the Integrated Peasant Economy (IPe), which com-
bined agricultural income with income from other work carried out in the
valley or from temporary emigration to farms or towns on the plains.2
The IPe represented an important and efficient barrier against per-
manent emigration from the Alpine valleys and ensured a stable (some-
times growing) demographic condition. Depending on their profession-
al skills, all members of Alpine families were engaged in many different
activities, including agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and, where
there were mines and forges, iron extraction and the artisanal production
of iron and brassware. The most skilled men worked as artisans in forg-
es or as woodcutters or charcoal burners. The others worked in other pro-
ductive fields inside the house (spinning and weaving) and outside (paper
mills and sawmills) or in the transportation of raw materials and finished
or semi-finished products. The women took care of the house, the small
plots of land and the few livestock that the families owned. In addition,
seasonal migration was an important source of household economy: adult
men worked mainly harvesting grain and grapes on the plains or as por-
ters or masons in the towns; adult women usually worked as cleaners or
servants. Their professional skills were well known, and their wages were
very competitive in the labour market of the plains, both in the country-
side and in the cities.
The income generated by temporary migration allowed the integra-
tion of household income and ensured the survival of Alpine families,
including the poorest ones; only when the harvest was scarce due to bad
weather conditions and/or the negative economic trend severely reduced
IPe income, did the poorest families of the village face serious problems.
However, since the negative trends in agriculture and industry were few,
the poor families were supported by the richest families in their village.

2 About the concept of IPe cf. Panjek (2017; 2024). See also Viazzo (1988), Coppola
(1991), Lorenzetti and Merzario (2005), and Tedeschi (2015).

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