Page 227 - 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. 227
peasant population and income integration: the case of the trieste port-town ...
the city and its hinterland. They were situated at a short distance and with-
in the same administrative territory. The villagers benefited from the free
port tax exemptions and legal privileges and the protection of the most
profitable agrarian production. The integration between the agrarian econ-
omy and non-agrarian activities met very favourable conditions to devel-
op in several forms and combinations, depending on the natural resourc-
es, the geographic position of the villages and other determinants. Thanks
to the integration of the agrarian economy with the income opportunities
offered by the city the population exceeded in number the land’s agrari-
an resources sustainability. In this regard, what the Triestine police direc-
tor Antonio Pittoni reported to the government in Vienna in 1786 is mean-
ingful. He wrote, that “the peasants in the Triestine rural district take full
hands from the city wealth” and that “some houses in Križ and Prosek look
like noble rather than peasant” (Dorsi 1989, 143). As we saw, the expansion
of the city entailed some restructurings in the agrarian activities, while its
proximity and the new traffic communications allowed a dynamic inter-
play of the agrarian and non-agrarian income. The demographic growth
was regulated by the migration movements, which also reflected both the
general trends of the population development and the specific phases of
the Trieste history. When the city increased, its closer karstic surround-
ings attracted newcomers too, who contributed to the rise of the popula-
tion. This was true until the mid-19th century, when the immigrants also
fulfilled the demographic losses because of extensive negative natural rates.
In the following phases, when the mortality crises lost their precedent im-
petus and the natural rise became more stable, the communities saw emi-
gration to the city and several other continental and overseas destinations
of the members bound to live on the edge of society or those in search of
alternative perspectives. The progressive decrease in emigration from the
1880s onwards and especially in the first decade of the 20th century, when
the population considerably increased, shows, however, how the growth of
the city made the peasant integrated economic system more sustainable.
Even though the non-agrarian activities tended to spread as the primary
economic resource in this phase and proletarisation was increasing.
Bibliography
Archival sources
BCT, AD: Biblioteca civica di Trieste, Archivio Diplomatico.
225
the city and its hinterland. They were situated at a short distance and with-
in the same administrative territory. The villagers benefited from the free
port tax exemptions and legal privileges and the protection of the most
profitable agrarian production. The integration between the agrarian econ-
omy and non-agrarian activities met very favourable conditions to devel-
op in several forms and combinations, depending on the natural resourc-
es, the geographic position of the villages and other determinants. Thanks
to the integration of the agrarian economy with the income opportunities
offered by the city the population exceeded in number the land’s agrari-
an resources sustainability. In this regard, what the Triestine police direc-
tor Antonio Pittoni reported to the government in Vienna in 1786 is mean-
ingful. He wrote, that “the peasants in the Triestine rural district take full
hands from the city wealth” and that “some houses in Križ and Prosek look
like noble rather than peasant” (Dorsi 1989, 143). As we saw, the expansion
of the city entailed some restructurings in the agrarian activities, while its
proximity and the new traffic communications allowed a dynamic inter-
play of the agrarian and non-agrarian income. The demographic growth
was regulated by the migration movements, which also reflected both the
general trends of the population development and the specific phases of
the Trieste history. When the city increased, its closer karstic surround-
ings attracted newcomers too, who contributed to the rise of the popula-
tion. This was true until the mid-19th century, when the immigrants also
fulfilled the demographic losses because of extensive negative natural rates.
In the following phases, when the mortality crises lost their precedent im-
petus and the natural rise became more stable, the communities saw emi-
gration to the city and several other continental and overseas destinations
of the members bound to live on the edge of society or those in search of
alternative perspectives. The progressive decrease in emigration from the
1880s onwards and especially in the first decade of the 20th century, when
the population considerably increased, shows, however, how the growth of
the city made the peasant integrated economic system more sustainable.
Even though the non-agrarian activities tended to spread as the primary
economic resource in this phase and proletarisation was increasing.
Bibliography
Archival sources
BCT, AD: Biblioteca civica di Trieste, Archivio Diplomatico.
225
