“In the old days it was difficult but nice”

The economics of rural Istria between tradition and modernisation based on a case study of the village of Rakitovec (during the first half of the 20th century)

Abstract

The article discusses the economics of the Istrian countryside based on a case study of the village of Rakitovec during the first half of the 20th century, with particular emphasis on the activities of agriculture and animal husbandry. The study took shape based on oral testimonies of the witnesses of those times. Agriculture of the extensive type was the primary industrial activity on the edge of Slovenian Istria in the first half of the 20th century. The fields were tilled by hand with the use of simple technology. Small-scale family holdings measuring 3 hectares on average were the predominant type of property. Owned by one family, they sufficed only to meet the needs of the family members. Trade of a limited scope was done in the markets of the nearby towns with items such as hay, eggs, milk, wool, sheep's milk cheese, lambs, etc., while more extensive trading took place in the Trieste marketplace. From the above, we can conclude that the economy of Rakitovec still showed many of the characteristics of a pre-industrial agricultural economy, and could also be termed a subsistence economy. This means that, despite the relatively close proximity of Trieste, the traditional social and economical patterns of survival remained alive in Istria well into the 20th century. Its inhabitants only began changing them after WWII, when the Communist authorities began to forcefully introduce changes into the traditional social structures of the Istrians.