Abstract

In recent years, research in medieval and early modern European economic history has increasingly concentrated on the analysis of commercialization and the integration of product and factor markets. The results challenge traditional Malthusian-Ricardian theories based upon the lack of social and economic dynamics in pre-industrial European societies. According to commercialization theories, market integration fostered economic growth as well as social and institutional change. Against this backdrop, recent research has focused particularly on the late medieval establishment of rural land markets in Western Europe. Drawing from the new theoretical and methodological stimuli, this project aims to provide a Central European case study on late medieval land market development by means of a comparative approach between selected Austrian and Northern Italian rural regions. It will analyze (i) the institutional framework of rural land markets, (ii) patterns of transfer of tenant land and thus the establishment of land markets for tenant land and (iii) the resulting social change in late medieval rural societies (c. 1400-1550). The comparison will build upon a uniform analysis of two Austrian regions of traditional mixed agriculture and livestock-based mountain farming and an Italian region of grain cultivation and viticulture. The base of primary sources consists of seigniorial land transfer registers and charters as well as cross-sectional sources with information on rural social structure, tenant economic activities and on the land property and equipment held by tenant households. We shall also use sources on legal structures such as custumals and regulations. The studies will concentrate on a quantitative assessment of land transfer registers, which will yield results on the frequency and types of transfers and information on the individuals involved. Detailed information occasionally included in the transfer contracts will provide the basis for an additional qualitative analysis and an assessment of the influence of formal and informal institutions on the behaviour of tenant households in terms of land market activities. Moreover, scarce evidence of property inventories (such as in cases of debt litigations or inheritance regulations for under-age children) and tax records will allow scope for some tentative conclusions on factor endowment and prices. This combined quantitative and qualitative approach will culminate in an analysis at household and family level and will be an attempt to recreate the actors’ centred approach which characterizes the work of the project. The comparative approach between selected Austrian and Northern Italian regions will yield the economic, social and institutional factors which prove relevant, condusive or obstructive for the development of flexible land markets. The results will improve our understanding of the late medieval and early modern European land market by illustrating commonly shared patterns and regional differences.

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Funding

The research project "Busy Tenants" is domiciled at University of Vienna's Department of Economic and Social History and is sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

→ FWF Project P 26071