Page 43 - Changing Living Spaces

The Privatization of the Common Real Estate in Lombard Alpine Valleys

worm breeding, but the sale of mulberry leaves in the hills and plains
provided relevant earnings). However, the related earnings were offset
by the progressive deterioration of timber quality and the decline in the
value of mulberry leaves from the mid-nineteenth century onward due
to the arrival of the pebrina.7
The over-exploitation was sometimes associated with the presence of
services in favour of the villagers, in order to reduce the investment for
the improvement of the former common real estate; when new landown-
ers had to respect these services, part of the profits was reserved for the
people who had the related right. This lengthened the payback period and
increased the willingness of new landowners to exploit the real estate. If
the members of the local administration were not able to sell the com-
mons at a good price and were forced to lease them, the tenant had to re-
spect the services, thus recovering the lost income through excessive use
of the pastures or forests. It was a real compromise; the services should
have been abolished to avoid overexploitation, but in this case the local
administration had to compensate the villagers who lost their rights.
The best condition for the Alpine villages (and also for the environment)
occurred when most of the families protested and forced the local adminis-
tration to sell only part of the common real estate and rent the other to the
villagers at a low cost. In this way, all services could be maintained and the
local tenants continued to abide by the rules that prevented unfair use of
the common real estate. However, this situation did not last long: increas-
es in taxes forced communities to raise rent, eliminate services, or sell.
Sales also occurred when the low quality of common real estate made pric-
es too low. It was more profitable to rent, but if the tenant could not pay the
rent because his income was too low, the local administration had to sell.
The Lombard Alpine Valleys in The New-Born Kingdom of Italy
The entry of the Lombard Alpine valleys into the new Kingdom of Italy
did not improve the situation. Faced with the reduction of common real
estate in area and cadastral value (in the valleys of eastern Lombardy it
was almost 15 and 43 percent, respectively), the new Italian government
increased taxes to pay for the costs of Italian political unification. The
Alpine communities had less money for the poorest families and the out-
look was not good: the distribution of the real estate in the Alpine valleys
7 About the silk industry granting high income for the Lombard economy and the
negative effects of the pebrine, see: Fumi (2019), Tolaini (2022), Tedeschi (2006)
and Moioli (1981).

41