Page 225 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 225
peasant population and income integration: the case of the trieste port-town ...
The expansion of the city and its population in the 19th century also
brought changes in the agrarian economy. In the areas closer to the city,
an intensive vegetable production for the city foodstuff market took place.
In the karstic district, instead, the cattle breeding for milk production de-
veloped a lot. Livestock was a traditional specialisation in the karstic area,
which transformed in accordance with the city market. In the first decades
of the 19th century sheep-breeding still represented an important branch,
while cattle-breeding consisted especially in breeding oxes to be employed
as work animals in agriculture and to provide transportation services. Soon
sheep-breeding diminished a lot and cattle-breeding became the basis of
the peasant economy with the cows for milk production and the meadows,
obtained by the time consuming work of removing rocks, steadily increas-
ing in extent. Cattle-breeding was of special importance in the eastern part
of the karstic district of Trieste, where it became the leading activity. In the
western part, in Prosek especially, a new culture entered the agrarian econ-
omy thanks to the appropriate climate and land morphology besides live-
stock and viticulture: the floriculture (Krajevni leksikon 1991). In both the
milk production and the floriculture the women had a prominent role, for
the selling of flowers and milk in the city was within their domain.
In the western villages the peasant economy was more articulated
than in the eastern one and during the 19th century it became even more
heterogeneous. In Križ and Kontovel the fishery gained increasing impor-
tance transforming from a supplementary into a primary economic re-
source for a rising number of families. On the one hand this process was
connected with the modernisation of the economy and its adjustment to
the city market demand. On the other hand it was a consequence of the so-
cial segmentation, the fragmentation of the land property and the proleta-
risation of those with few or without land. Indeed, the fishermen class it-
self was an even more segmented one. It included the boat owners with a
leading entrepreneurial elite, who managed to put its activity on capitalis-
tic level, and fishermen employed on the village fellows’ boats. The differ-
entiation between farmers and fishermen reflected also in the architecture,
with the fishermen’s’ houses smaller and without outbuildings (Semerani,
De Rosa, and Celli 1970). However, the entire network of villages partici-
pated in certain forms of fishery and a part of the catch was divided among
all the families. This is the case of the tuna catch in which a massive labour
force and a complex organisation were needed to take the shoal of fish in
the net and pull it ashore (Volpi Lisjak 1996). Besides the fishermen the vil-
223
The expansion of the city and its population in the 19th century also
brought changes in the agrarian economy. In the areas closer to the city,
an intensive vegetable production for the city foodstuff market took place.
In the karstic district, instead, the cattle breeding for milk production de-
veloped a lot. Livestock was a traditional specialisation in the karstic area,
which transformed in accordance with the city market. In the first decades
of the 19th century sheep-breeding still represented an important branch,
while cattle-breeding consisted especially in breeding oxes to be employed
as work animals in agriculture and to provide transportation services. Soon
sheep-breeding diminished a lot and cattle-breeding became the basis of
the peasant economy with the cows for milk production and the meadows,
obtained by the time consuming work of removing rocks, steadily increas-
ing in extent. Cattle-breeding was of special importance in the eastern part
of the karstic district of Trieste, where it became the leading activity. In the
western part, in Prosek especially, a new culture entered the agrarian econ-
omy thanks to the appropriate climate and land morphology besides live-
stock and viticulture: the floriculture (Krajevni leksikon 1991). In both the
milk production and the floriculture the women had a prominent role, for
the selling of flowers and milk in the city was within their domain.
In the western villages the peasant economy was more articulated
than in the eastern one and during the 19th century it became even more
heterogeneous. In Križ and Kontovel the fishery gained increasing impor-
tance transforming from a supplementary into a primary economic re-
source for a rising number of families. On the one hand this process was
connected with the modernisation of the economy and its adjustment to
the city market demand. On the other hand it was a consequence of the so-
cial segmentation, the fragmentation of the land property and the proleta-
risation of those with few or without land. Indeed, the fishermen class it-
self was an even more segmented one. It included the boat owners with a
leading entrepreneurial elite, who managed to put its activity on capitalis-
tic level, and fishermen employed on the village fellows’ boats. The differ-
entiation between farmers and fishermen reflected also in the architecture,
with the fishermen’s’ houses smaller and without outbuildings (Semerani,
De Rosa, and Celli 1970). However, the entire network of villages partici-
pated in certain forms of fishery and a part of the catch was divided among
all the families. This is the case of the tuna catch in which a massive labour
force and a complex organisation were needed to take the shoal of fish in
the net and pull it ashore (Volpi Lisjak 1996). Besides the fishermen the vil-
223
