Page 70 - Changing Living Spaces

Žarko Lazarević

ing on other farms, mostly in their immediate vicinity, toward the end
of the 1930s. Altogether, these people made up one-third of the peasant
population. If their dependent family members are taken into account,
these figures increase dramatically. Because of the prevailing low aver-
age income in agriculture, the wages of temporary workers were corre-
spondingly modest. Filip Uratnik estimated that the average daily wage
of temporary workers was half that of industrial workers (Uratnik 1938,
5–12; 62–76).

Cottage Industry
The list of agricultural crafts shows a wide range of potential econom-
ic initiatives and relationships that are outside of agriculture or derived
from agricultural activities. It offers a number of opportunities for farm-
ers in the process of income diversification – a variety of options for in-
tegrating the different sources of income that offered themselves as par-
allel or complementary economic activities. For example, in the Velike
Lašče district, the following economic activities of peasants were reg-
istered before World War II: production of linen, hats and straw hats,
tailoring and dressmaking, furriery, butchery, leather industry, shoe-
making, carpentry, carts, saddles and barrels production, milling, lock-
smithery, production of tubs, production of wooden goods, toothpicks,
baskets, rakes and pitchforks, manufacture of hats from hazel dormouse
fur, sawing, blacksmithing, manufacture of hoods, masonry, manufac-
ture of lime, charcoal, resin and potash, manufacture of hangers, wick-
er baskets, toys, dolls, musical instruments, wooden shoes, ropes and
brushes. Among trading activities were listed trade in mixed goods, ped-
dling, selling at fairs, trade in wild birds, forest fruits, medicinal herbs,
dormouse skins, wooden goods, and even smuggling (Markun 1943,
60–2).
In discussing cottage industry, we must distinguish between two types
of crafts: the more sophisticated and the less sophisticated cottage indus-
try. The former possessed more aesthetic elements and was sometimes
even artistic in nature, while the latter was characterized mainly by its
utilitarian character. Thus, lace-making belongs to the former, while the
latter includes a range of everyday products made of wood (buckets, bas-
kets, toothpicks, spoons, ladles, sieves, etc.) and straw (baskets, mats,
etc.) or pottery, to name just a few examples. It is obvious that the latter
type of peasant production was based on the easily accessible and cheap
raw materials that were abundant in the countryside and were available

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