Peasant Economy before and during the Early Period of the Industrial Revolution. Conclusions II

Abstract

This article presents the second set of conclusions of the international colloquium on peasant economy before and during the early period of industrialization, held in Poznań in 1975. The author, acting as general rapporteur, proposes a theoretical model of peasant economy in the period of early industrialization and subjects it to concretization through the findings of the papers and discussions presented at the colloquium.
The model of peasant economy identifies three levels: peasant economy as a subsistence unit and source of market surplus and industrial labour; as part of larger structures (village commune, family commune, manorial system); and under the impact of the external world (transition to money economy, intensification, modernization). The concretization addresses four problems: peasant economies as part of a broader system; peasant economy and the commodity and labour market; changes in peasant economy under industrialization; and the dynamics of peasant income and consumption.
The article shows that in countries with manorial serf economy, peasant farms were subordinated elements of the lord's production system with market contacts controlled by the manor; only land reform opened the way to peasant economic autonomy and agricultural modernization. In Western Europe, seigneurial control was more differentiated, and the village commune played a variable role - sometimes inhibiting, sometimes facilitating change. Three types of change under industrialization are distinguished: the shift from payment in kind to money; the intensification of farming; and agricultural modernization through scientific and industrial inputs.
The article concludes that peasant economic behaviour was in general rational within its own constraints, and that the key to understanding peasant income and consumption patterns lies in the relationship between actual and required standards of life, which shaped peasant decision-making in response to industrial stimuli.