Land Inequality and Demographic Outcomes: The Relationship between Access to Land and Demographic System over Time (19th-20th Century)

Matteo Manfredini, University of Parma
Marco Breschi, Università degli Studi di Sassari
Alessio Fornasin, University of Udine

Between the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, farm laborers and sharecroppers had a major role in Italian rural society. Both landless, they were anyway characterized by unequal access to land, which in turn determined marked differences in the standard of living, family patterns, and socioeconomic conditions. Farm laborers had no direct access to land, were paid on a daily (or seasonal) basis by other rural groups who needed some extra farm works. The other household members were usually involved in different poor activities trying to supplement the meager family income. Sharecroppers lived directly on the farm, divided the crop on a fifty-fifty basis with the landowner so that their wellbeing depended largely on their ability to cultivate the land and, therefore, on their family working force. Such differences between the two social groups deeply affected also their respective demographic behaviors. Sharecroppers, in better socioeconomic conditions, had lower infant mortality and, in order to have a constant supply of working force, also higher fertility and larger households. Also, the lack of a stable tie with the land made farm laborers more mobile. The present analysis makes use of both vital and census sources to investigate to what extent the strong increase in population, the fragmentation of the land and land ownership, and the profound modifications of the agricultural sector at the turn of the 20th century impacted the demographic pattern of the two rural categories, changing forever their respective conditions and wellbeing.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 222. Inequality, Economic Stress, and Demographic Behavior: Sub-Session 3. Integrated views