On the Historical Character of Lombardian Large Farms : An Analysis of Inchiesta Jacini

Abstract

This paper is a part of my studies to make clear the structure and the change of the agriculture in the process of industrialization in Italy, using as fundamental material, Atti delta Giunta per la Inchiesta agraria e sulle condizioni della classe agricola, Roma, 1881-1885, Voll. 16. It is widely said that the Italian agriculture has mainly three regional types; the areas of large farms in the North, the areas of "mezzadria" in the Center and the areas of "latifondo" in the South. This article intends to analyze the structure of the most advanced large farms in the North, in particular, in modern Lombardy. This large farms have been generally seen as "capitalistic farms" with the high productivity of the West-European level. This article is an attempt to criticize and reconsider the orthodox view. Examing the actual conditions of large farms indicated by Inchiesta Jacini, I can point out many elements which can not be simply thought capitalistic, in comparison with the large capitalistic farms in England after the Agricultural Revolution. So far as the labour-power is concerned, for example, the agricultural labourer called "contadini salariati" are characterized by the payments in kind called "zapperia", the cultivation of small plots of land, domestic industries, cottages in the farm, etc. The same backward elements can be moreover seen in the system of the cultivation, the incomings and outgoings of the normal farms and the relationship between landowner and tenant farmer. Therefore, in the writer's view, we should adapt the concept of "Ubergangsform" (K. Marx) to determine precisely the historical characters of Lombardian large farms as a whole.