Page 67 - Changing Living Spaces

Peasants, Land, and Work

Table 6 Sources of Income Other than Agriculture
Source of income Farm size
0–1 ha 1–2 ha 2–5 ha Over 5 ha Total ha
Cottage industry 801 462 692 1,537 3,492
Wage labour at other farms 9,988 4,294 4,466 2,585 21,333
Various wage labour 1,269 696 832 697 3,945
Employment in craft industry 2,303 944 1,140 911 5,298
Total 14,361 6,396 7,130 5,730 33,717
Source Uratnik 1938, 67.

lation. Income was diversified, and different sources of income were inte-
grated. These were not new approaches, but those that had been tried in
the period before World War I and had already been documented in the
era of the Habsburg Monarchy. These strategies can be defined as gener-
al ways to overcome the income constraints of small farms. We should
also highlight another phenomenological feature. In general, income di-
versification strategies mostly depended on the framework of the infor-
mal economy. Initiatives and practices were territorially dispersed, were
rarely taxed, and were not statistically tracked. The integration of dif-
ferent sources of income had a significant impact on alleviating the dai-
ly hardships of the peasant population, as it contributed to a better farm
balance.
Wage labour on other farms, seasonal migration abroad and the so-
called cottage industry (agricultural production of various goods) repre-
sented the first type of income diversification. In this context, we may well
hypothesize that these strategies involved the commercialization of ex-
isting surplus labour capacity, leisure time, certain experience and skills
(available or acquired along the way), and local raw materials. Cottage in-
dustries were based on undemanding technologies that required little or
no skill. It was relatively easy to adapt to such crafts, since it was enough
to learn on the job. However, these products were cheap and, according-
ly, the pay was modest. If the other conditions were met – i.e. demand or,
in the case of production, trade channels that brought producers and con-
sumers together – it was relatively easy for farmers to enter into addition-
al employment.

Emigration
Emigration to the United States of America and other European coun-
tries contributed significantly to reducing agricultural overpopulation

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