The main target of this book is to explore how the involvement of rural populations and communities in different kinds of markets (mainly for agricultural commodities) has influenced the management of rural land in Europe. Most of the papers focus on precisely what were the forces driving agricultural change in rural Europe. Although the importance of these changes were very different from the Middle Ages until the present days, a common approach that emerged was to stress the importance of urban and external markets in order to give incentives to changes in the management of rural land. The transition of agriculture and its producers, respectively, into a highly market-integrated sector and strongly market-oriented peasants formed the driving force and prima causa of European agricultural revolutions during early modern times. Expansion of market allowed for an intense process of specialization, with clear competitive advantages with respect to earlier land uses.

 

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Maria Isabel AYUDA, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Marc BADIA-MIRO,  Universität Oberta de Catalunya, Spain

Xavier Cusso, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Ramon GARRABOU, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Michael KOPSIDIS, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (Iamo),Germany

Mais OLSSON, Lund University Sweden

Ann-Catrin ÒSTMAN, Abo Akademi University, Finland

Vicente PINILLA, University of Zaragoza, Spain 

José Vicente SERRÀO, Institute Superior de Ciëncia do Trabalho e da Empresa (ICSTE), Lisboa, Portugal

Patrick SVENSSON, Lund University, Sweden

Enric TELLO, University of Barcelona, Spain

Isabelle THEILLER, University of Paris Diderot – Paris VII, France

Aud MIKKELSEN TRETVK, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway