We have arrived at our final destination on the trip. The Abruzzo region, in the town of Fontecchio, where our tour guide/ professor/ translator/ friend Alessio lives! Tucked into the side of a mountain and overlooking the valley, this rustic little town has views that make the journey their very well worth it! Many of the towns in the region developed along a transhumance path centuries before, where the people relied on sheep as the main resource of the region. Due to the variability of summer and winter grazelands, the people began to practice common property farming, and the land was essentially shared among the people and allocated for each farmer on a seasonal basis to provide food for their flock and thus for their family.

We have seen examples of this common property ownership of natural resources in many places throughout Italy. Issues have arisen in recent years, with the influence of private business practices seeking control of property to reap larger profits. While exploring the countryside we saw a farmer still herding his sheep through the transhumance path, though he implemented today's technology by following the herd in his Volkswagon...

This trip has really shown me that their are other successful possibilities for sustaining both profits and long-term environmental health of a region, as long as cooperation is at the foundation of their system. It seems like an ancient practice in the U.S., but those who value traditions and legacy here in Italy have shown that it is still possible to live simply and find joy in doing things the old fashioned way, and there are many benefits of doing so.

Going to miss this country, until next time Italy!
Ciao,
Jackson Leech

Local identity, final blog.

Unfortunately it has come to an end. Such an amazing experience. This was such an amazing opportunity that we were all given and I'm so glad we all did. Econ 215, you will be missed! Italy has by far changed my views on life and has taught me many great things along the way. From learning how to be flexible with time to also getting places on time. As well as being open to many new ideas and to completely indulge into another culture I have never experienced before. Definitely a humbling study away program. 

Getting the chance to learn about the economics of the areas we went to was like a dream come true. Growing up I had always seen the history and the travel channels show Ancient Rome and walking through the streets of Venice. But to be able to actually be in these areas and to go to other places I had never even heard of before this, put me into shock. Having learned about so many different cultures and how the economics ties into all of them was fantastic. Actually getting the chance to be up close and personal with a lot of these economic projects was a great way to learn and really helped me understand how the economics played into it. 

Throughout our entire study abroad program we saw a lot of preservation of old buildings, artifacts, roads, terraces, etc. And in the last article that we presented on, we learned how preservation vs new technology can play a large role in the Abruzzo community. We all saw the damage that had been done to this region through many earthquakes, it was quite horrifying. And what was so amazing was the fact that a lot of this region had still not bounced back from the earthquakes and buildings were still in shambles. This was when the question of why don't the people in this region rebuild a lot faster but that's because they want to preserve the art and history here. To them preserving is more important and if they rebuild and find new infrastructure who's to say another earthquake won't hit again. A great example that we saw from this was going to a house where they were restoring old fresco paintings, the question of is it worth it to find all the pieces to the paintings, and who's interested in this. But to them it didn't matter they were doing what they wanted to do. It was amazing to see the dedication that these people had. Abruzzo was just one of our beautiful stops along the way and we could not be more happy that we were blessed with these opportunities, until next time Italy!

Bailey Takacs, Jackson Leech

Shared Blog(kinda): Fishing Across the Centuries in the Venice Lagoon

Sarah:

Fishing with fyke nets is popular because of it's small demand of fishermen and time. To haul in the catch only one fisherman is needed. They can haul in two point five to five kg per fyke net per day and work six to eight hours a day. Nets are sunk, recovered, and cleaned on a daily basis.

Marsh farm fishing and fishing for fish fry for rearing is an activity related to seasonal migration of juveniles that has been practiced for seven centuries. In 1500 about sixty fish farms were ordered to be destroyed because they "hinder free movement of water" and people were afraid they would "obstruct necessary waterways for port movement." Over the last century the number of fish farms has less than halved and are now condensed in only two ports. the fishing system being used has remained mostly unchanged for twenty years and the fish yield has remained stable. Initially this practice was established to supplement seasonal migration and now marsh fish farms are used for seeding and growth. This is ecologically compatible exploitation and must be managed and controlled in order to maintain stocks.

Mussel farming in "nursery parks" started in the 1930s and production grew and stayed constant for the next sixty years. However, in the last ten years it has diminished. Most mussel farming has shifted from being done in the lagoon to now most being "off-shore" in the sea. This reduction in lagoon farming may be because the lagoon permit is much more complicated to get, or because of the reduced nutrients in the lagoon. Mussel farming is now spreading to other places in Italy, keeping the average price stable.

The Caparozzoli is an Asian clam that was introduced in 1983 as an experiment and has since been a rapidly growing species. It is liked by the fishermen because of its faster growth rate, bigger size, and greater condition tolerance than native clams. The equipment used has a significant impact on the land and water. It changes the morphology and composition of sea beds as well as releasing toxins from post-war industrial activity. The damage caused is estimated to cost ten million for materials to be collected and disposed of and twenty million per year for reconstruction.

The author says that the continuous depletion of fish resources can be possibly explained by two things: The Mortality Phenomena of 2001, or the increased pressure of fishing which has grown recently due to free access and the lack of regulation of catch limits.

This article relates to what we saw in Venice in the huge fish market we got to see. We didn't get to see the fishermen's fishing equipment but it can be assumed that they used some of the tools talked about in this paper. We also walked by the canal where many of the fishermen's boats were docked with a man that helped to run the fish market. He pointed out some illegal fishing gear that was banned but still used because of lack of policing. In our article it talked about a type of rake to dig up clams that is in a similar situation, it is illegal but is still being used.

Climatic Change and Agricultural Exhaustion as Elements in the Fall of Rome.

On the economic effects of climate change the author of the article doesn't think that the exhaustion of soil was the main cause for the problems that causes the fall of Rome. He references other countries that use the same type of farming without the repletion of the soil, meaning that farming on that land could maintain indefinitely. The primary change between the climate during the reign of Rome and now is the storminess. In the past the storms were more numerous and severe. This meant more rain in end of spring and more variable weather which was important to break up the heat of summer.

The agricultural decline was due to not enough rain in late spring. Not enough rain killed forests and the lack of forests led to the soil being washed away and swamps being formed. Farmers abandoned their fields so even when the climate improved enough for good farming, the people were already discouraged. When crops stopped being worthwhile the land switched over to be used for grazing of sheep. The sheep would eat the baby trees and trample soil, keeping the land from improving enough for farming. This decline disturbed the system of taxation because taxes didn't decrease with the decreasing of income. With the provinces suffering, their discontent was an important element in the fall of Rome. "Poverty and discouragement of the many almost inevitably favor the concentration of power into the hands of the few."

The biological effect of climate change is that leaders in Ancient Rome and Greece belonged to the fair Nordic race. The climate of Italy was too sunny for blond Nordics which induces diseases and in the long run lessens the rate of reproduction. Roman's practice of bringing in slaves from different racial countries caused a gradual change in racial type of the country. Plus malaria, known in early Rome, became widespread in the 2nd century B.C. The increasing aridity of the climate increased stagnant water in swamps and slower streams which multiplied the creation of mosquitoes.

According to the author, the most important effect of climate change is the effect it had on the people. There are two types of adaptation, the first is the adaptation to light which is easier for the body to accomplish and the second is to temperature and humidity which is much more difficult. The change in climate affected the energy and ability of Romans because their bodies couldn’t adapt fast enough to the changed temperature and humidity. This happened when the most work was needed for irrigation, to overcome malaria, prevent swamps from forming, and fight barbarians.

While traveling around Italy we saw many places that were under the rule of the Roman empire before it fell. Some of these places contained land that used to be used for agriculture before the change in climate discouraged farmers and forced them to abandon their fields. In several fields we saw what the article talked about, sheep grazing on land that used to be used for agriculture. This shows that the harm caused by the initial change in climate has not been entirely reversed yet.

The Rental Market in Early Imperial Rome.

In early imperial Rome most of the residential population lived in rented apartments. Those who didn't were the especially privileged. The rent of the time was very high and while the range of accommodation did vary, the range was limited by wealth and social characteristics. The Ostian urban rental market had primarily two types of accommodation; Cenaculum and Cauponae.

Cenaculums were a higher class apartment and was made up of two sitting rooms and three bedrooms in between them. These rooms could be rented in portions to various tenants in a similar way to subleasing today. The lease would typically conclude after a year to several with the shortest being half a year. The tenant would pay at the end of the period which suggests that an element of trust was involved and implies that a degree of social status was also involved in taking a long-term lease.

The majority of Ostia's tenant population lived in mezzanines, backrooms of shops where they worked, or small one or two room flats. The poor lived in Cauponae which were made up of long rows of crudely partitioned, poorly lit cubicles. These buildings had different uses based on if they were located in the country or the city. In the country these buildings worked as inns for travelers while in cities they were for travelers, but primarily they were for poor residents. The poor residents would have had very short-term leases due to their lack of social status and unreliability of income.

The Roman rental market was economically wasteful. Entrepreneurial middlemen drove up rent, delayed-payment leases were risky for landlords and made the rich pay more, and the poor paid more because of the shortness of their lease. Regardless of this inefficiency, there was no evidence of improvement and no concept of public housing ever established. Part of the reason for this lack of change is because there was little regulation of the renting market, regardless of any hardships. The market was left to function "freely".

In Rome we explored the city a lot. While wandering around we passed houses that may have been used as rentals in early imperial Rome. Also, the contracts used in the long-term rentals were very progressive. The contracts included a warranty of continuing habitability on the part of the landlord which included circumstances that weren't within the landlord's control. This was so progressive that in the Common Law, this general warranty wasn't implied in rental contracts until 1970.

Mountain Economies of Southern Europe

The mountain areas of Southern Europe area an area primarily devoted to the pastoral activities during the pre-modern time. The area was largely dependent on animal husbandry as the primary form of economic activity. This particular work focuses on the primarily the history of this economic system and culture. This transhumance or large scale movement of livestock is first examined through a variety of methods. One of these is the examination of cultures who practice similar techniques used in pre-industrial animal husbandry. This information allows a further exploration of the subject with a less limited focus.

With the mountain economies of Southern Europe is important to understand these societies always existed on the margin. They were in each period of history considered usually inferior to other groups which lived in the lowlands. Thus the Romans who did detailed study of these peoples found them to be unimportant though they did observe the existence of markets and bartering for goods. For these areas before the industrial revolution agriculture was difficult and tended to be subsistence farming. The largely unsuitable farm land left these populations to use animal husbandry which was significantly less efficient than agriculture as it required more land and to feed a fairly small number of people.

The most successful time for transhumance which greatly benefited the people of Southern Europe was during the rule of powerful governments which could protect these large movements of livestock. Thus the Romans and from the twelfth century to the sixteenth century were the best times for this system. During the time when transhumance was possible two distinctive types existed vertical or alpine and horizontal or Mediterranean. Vertical transhumance is the movement of livestock from the valleys to the hills in summer to allow the farming of produce which will feed these animals in the winter. Horizontal transhumance is the movement of livestock from the lowlands to the hills in summer due to a lack of pasture land in the lowland areas during this time.

An important factor which effected this transhumance system was climate. Both these two previously discussed systems could exist in the Mediterranean region. Climate was a major driver in how transhumance worked in each specific area. Other factors however also have to help explain the practice of transhumance. One of such being the week agricultural economy due to war. Another being the demand for pastoral products such as wool and cheese. This entire system exists due to the limited zone of natural grassland which allowed humans to change the landscape to create this system which had necessary resources. The author concludes using this information to find the system was unnecessary and a result of a peasant economy focused on agriculture. The system was the author found more economically damaging than helpful.

Throughout our travels in the Abruzzo region the importance of transhumance and continued existence of pastoral agriculture was evident. This economic system still exists in a certain way in this area. The raising of livestock is still an important part of the lives of many of the people in the area. It is clear that despite its limitations the idea of transhumance persists.

Sheep Herding in the Abruzzo Region

Who Needs Formal Institutions to Manage the Commons? The Rural Charters in Northern Italy.

The charters used my some rural communities in Northern Italy made it costly for single members to abandon the community by establishing a specific form of property rights on the commons and making the right to return sometimes restricted. Content of the communal ownership rights locked-in peasants in a community and ensured long-term relationships. Long term relationships of insiders was not a condition that occurred naturally, it was an intended consequence of the type of property rights arrangement they chose. There was also no individual right to succession from the community. A person could leave but no claim could be made of community common resources. Individuals had the right to use common resources according to rules and could participate in shaping rules but only the group could decide to rent or sell common land or to partition it and assign parts to individual use. To do these things however, they had to have the consent of the wide majority.

In the rural charters of the Fiemme Valley community there were provisions to stop immigration and trespassing from outsiders. This was aimed to prevent free riding by outsiders. Immigration was kept under control by request of an annual fee for using Commons and the acceptance of newcomers by the community . Trespassing was illegal and appointed guards were in charge of enforcement. If trespassers were caught they had to refund the market value of what they were attempting to steal plus an added penalty. So, while catching the trespassers gave the community a benefit, the detection and conviction of the trespasser was costly to them. This forms a type of game model in which each player must determine their payoffs and their level of involvement. This would vary for the trespasser depending on their indifference curves which is why trespassing still happened regardless of the risk. The max fine was set by a political authority, the Prince of Trento.

The preference for formal over informal regulation made by the Trentino commons may have been because of the imperfect information condition. With informal regulations there would have had to be a way for the community to keep an eye on each other and keep each other notified if someone stepped out of line and broke a rule. With the technology of the time however, that would have been difficult to achieve. It is possible that formal regulations could have performed better than informal regulations on efficiency grounds but both were sub-optimal because to implement would incur cost to the community.

 While in Cavalese we also saw a lumber yard where they process the trees in the commons that are owned and cut down by the Fiemme Valley community. It is interesting to see that even after all this time they are still operating in this way without over exploiting their resources. The valley community has a limit of how many trees they can cut down based off the growth of the forest. They cannot cut down more trees than how much the forest expands each year. This has allowed their entire economy to continue running by ensuring they do not exhaust their resources.