Enclosing the river: Industrialisation and the 'property rights' discourse in the Liri Valley (South of Italy), 1806-1916

Environment and History

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 3-23

  Barca, Stefania ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Industrialisation; Property rights; Southern Italy; Water

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; INDUSTRIALIZATION; PRIVATIZATION; PROPERTY RIGHTS; WATER RESOURCE;

EURASIA; EUROPE; ITALY; SOUTHERN EUROPE;

EID: 33847351718     PISSN: 09673407     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3197/096734007779748264     Document Type: Article

References (92)

1. 'Property rights discourse' is also in the title of Elizabeth Blackmar's chapter 'Appropriating "The Commons": The Tragedy of Property Rights Discourse', in The Politics of Public Space, ed. S. Low and N. Smith (New York: Routledge, 2006). Although at the time I was writing this article I could not have the opportunity of reading Blackmar's, I have been struck by her illustration of how 'history and ideology have intersected to shape understandings of property rights, and with those understandings, the spaces that they govern' (p. 52).
2. G. Hardin, 'The Tragedy of the Commons', Science, 162 (1968): 1243-8.
3. See S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup and R.C. Bishop, '"Common Property" as a Concept in Natural Resource Policy', Natural Resources Journal 15 (1975) 713-27.
4. G. Hardin, 'Political Requirements for Preserving our Common Heritage', in Wildlife and America, ed. H.P. Bokaw (Washington, DC: Council of Environmental Quality, 1978);
5. 'The Tragedy of the Unmanaged Commons', in Commons Without Tragedy, ed. R.V Andelson (Savage, MD: Barnes and Noble 1991);
6. 'Extensions of "The Tragedy of the Commons"', Science 280 (1998).
7. See G. Hardin, 'An Operational Analysis of Responsiblity', in Managing the Commons, ed. G. Hardin and J. Baden (San Francisco: W.H. Freeman, 1977).
8. See also Daniel W. Bromley, Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991).
9. An important discussion of the concept of social cost in economic theory was given by W. Kapp, The Social Costs of Private Entreprise (Shocken Books: New York 1971 [1950]);
10. for a survey on the ecological critique of 'efficiency' see J. Martinez-Alier, Ecological Economics. Energy, Environment and Society (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987),
11. and J. Martinez-Alier. The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2003).
12. About the environmental meanings of private property in North America see E.T. Freyfogle, The Land We Share: Private Property and the Common Good, (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003)
13. and E.T. Freyfogle, Why Conservation is Failing and How it Can Regain Ground (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2006).
14. For a survey of North-Western European studies see The Management of Common Land in North West Europe, c. 1500-1850, ed. M. De Moor, L. Shaw Taylor and P. Warde (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols 2002).
15. For the Mediterranean area see J.R. McNeill, The Mountains of the Mediterranean World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003);
16. some accounts also in Views from the South. Environmental Stories from the Mediterranean World, ed. M. Armiero (Naples: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 2006).
17. For the evolution of the commons in the South of Italy, see G. Corona, Demani e individualismo agrario nel regno di Napoli, 1780-1806 (Napoli: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane 1995).
18. T. Steinberg Nature Incorporated. Industrialization and the Waters of New England (Cambridge, MA/New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
19. From the same author, see also 'An Environmental Perspective on the Origins of Industrialization', Environmental Review 4 (1986): 261-76.
20. For this definition see S. Barca, 'Entropia. Un nuovo paradigma per la storia economica?', Meridiana. Rivista di Storia e Scienze Sociali 43 (2002): 185-218.
21. Beyond the New-Institutionalist approach, focused on the theory of rational individual choices, the debate around the commons is now discovering the 'embeddedness' of individuals 'in particular situations that can only be known through investigations into history, political dynamics and social structure, culture and ecology'. See B.J. McCay, 'Emergence of Institutions for the Commons: Contexts, Situations and Events', in The Drama of the Commons (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2002), p. 361.
22. For the rhetoric of property in the debate over the commons see C.M. Rose, Property and Persuasion: Essays on the History, Theory and Rhetoric of Ownership (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994).
23. For the definition of 'discourse' and its implications in the analysis of institutions I basically rely on D. Harvey, Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1996).
24. McCay, 'Emergence of Institutions'.
25. A good, though not recent, depiction of the Neapolitan economic environment in the nineteenth century is in J.A. Davis, Merchants, Monopolists, and Contractors: A Study of Economic Activity and Society in Bourbon Naples, 1815-1860, (New York: Arno Press, 1981).
26. The first innovation for the production of waterpower of some relevance for European industries, the Fourneyron turbine, dates to the 1830s. Late in the century came the Francis (1847) and Pelton (1889) turbines. See P. Mathias and J.A. Davis (eds.), First Industrial Revolutions, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990),
27. and V. Smil, Energy in World History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994).
28. See on the topic G. Imbruglia (ed.), Naples in the Eighteenth Century: The Birth and Death of a Nation State, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
29. See also Corona, Demani e individualismo agrario.
30. See for example P. Bevilacqua, Breve storia dell'Italia Meridionale (Roma: Donzelli, 1993)
31. and Id., Tra natura e storia. Ambiente, economie, risorse in Italia (Roma: Donzelli, 1994);
32. such interpretation has been more recently confirmed in J.R. Mc Neill, 'Tragedies of Privatization. Land, Liberty and Environmental Change in Spain and Italy, 1800-1910', in Land, Property and the Environment, J.F. Richards, ed. (Oakland, CA: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 2002).
33. Archivio di Stato di Caserta (ASC), Intendenza Borbonica (IB), Ponti e strade (PS), 44, 81, s.d. (1807?). Even in the previous feudal regime, however, the Duchies had to face struggles with the merchants for the exercise of their control over water: see A. Viscogliosi, 'I Boncompagni e l'industria', in Trasformazioni industriali nella media valle del Liri in età moderna e contemporanea (Isola del Liri, FR: Rotary 1988).
34. I draw the concept of energy rent from J.C. Debeir, J.P. Deléage and D. Hemery, In the Servitude of Power: Energy and Civilization Through the Ages, (London: Zed Books, 1990).
35. About the non-coincidence between common property, ecological efficiency and social equity see P.B. Baumann, 'Historical Evidence on the Incidence and Role of Common Property Regimes in the Indian Himalayas', Environment and History 3 (1997): 323-42
36. A. Dell'Orefice, 'L'industria della carta nel XIX secolo', in Trasformazioni industriali, op. cit., p. 118.
37. S. De Majo, L'industria protetta. Lanifici e cotonifici in Campania nell'Ottocento (Naples: Athena 1990).
38. On free access as a reaction to a previous stage of common property, that favoured a social group against others, see B. McCay and J. Acheson, 'Human Ecology of the Commons', in The Question of the Commons, ed. B. McCay and J. Acheson (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1987). 1-34;
39. see also L. Taylor, '"The river would run red with blood". Community and Common Property in an Irish Fishing Settlement', The Question of the Commons, 290-307.
40. See J. O'Connor, Natural Causes. Essays in Ecological Marxism (New York: Guilford 1998).
41. P. Villani, Giuseppe Zurlo e la crisi dell'antico, regime nel regno di Napoli (Rome 1955).
42. F. Dias, Legislazione positiva del Regno delle Due Sicilie dal 1806 a tutto il 1840 (Napoli 1841).
43. A. Spagnoletti, Storia del regno delle due Sicilie (Bologna: Il Mulino 2000).
44. Dias, Legislazione Positiva.
45. L. Bianchini, Storia delle finanze del Regno delle due Sicilie (Napoli 1971), 495-6.
46. R. Trifone, Feudi e demani. Eversione della feudalità nelle province meridionali (Milano 1909).
47. Archivio di Stato di Napoli (ASN), Bollettino delle sentenze della Commissione Feudale, vol. 2, p.611.
48. ASC, IB, Contenzioso Amministrativo, LXXI.
49. ASC, Prefettura Carte Amministrative, 2, 2180.
50. ASC, Prefettura Prima serie, cat. XXII, 233, 2467.
51. ASN, Ministero dell'Interno, (MI) 2° inv., 3102, 10..
52. ASN, Ministero dell'Interno (MI) 2° inv., 3102, 6..
53. See A. Dewerpe, Crescita e ristagno protoindustriali nell'Italia meridionale: la Valle del Liri, in La società inafferrabile, ed. A. De Clementi (Rome: Editori Riuniti 1986);
54. see also S. De Majo, L'industria protetta, cit. and Economia e società in valle del Liri net secolo XIX. L'industria laniera, ed. C. Cimmino (Caserta 1986).
55. See S. Barca, 'Running Italian Waters. Hydraulics and Water Law in the Age of Industrialization', in Views from the South, op. cit.
56. ASC, Prefettura Prima Serie, cat. XXII, 233, 2467.
57. A classical presentation of this approach is D. North, Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
58. ASN, MI, 2° Inv., 530 and ASC, IB, Affari comunali, 15.
59. ASN, MI, Consigli Provinciali in Terra di Lavoro, 4054.
60. ASC IB, Ponti e strade (bonifiche), 44, 183.
61. ASC, Prefettura Prima Serie, 188, 2105.
62. ASC, Prefettura Prima Serie, cat. XXII, 253, 2547.
63. ASC, Prefettura Prima Serie, cat. XXII, 188, 2463
64. ASC, Prefettura Prima Serie, cat. XXII, 253, 2547.
65. ASC IB, Ponti e strade (bonifiche), 44, 183.
66. Ibid.
67. According to ISTAT, Il valore della lira (Roma, 1996), the Italian lira in 1861 equalled about 6,344 liras at 1995 value (about 3 euros at current value).
68. C. Afan de Rivera, Considerazioni su i mezzi da restituire il valore proprio a' doni che ha la natura largamente conceduto al regno delle due Sicilie, (Napoli: Dalla stamperia e cartiera del Fibreno, 1832),
69. and T. Monticelli, Memoria sull' economia delle acque da ristabilirsi nel regno di Napoli, (Napoli: Stamperia Reale, 1809).
70. For debate between the two authors regarding the relationship between public and private drainage and reclamation schemes, see also C. D'Elia, Bonifiche e Stato nel regno di Napoli (Napoli: ESI 1994).
71. ASN, MI, 2° Inv., 530 and ASC, IB, Affari comunali, 2356.
72. ASN, MI, 2° Inv., 530.
73. Here I draw from Donald Worster's works; see, in particular, The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
74. Despite some discussion over the correctness of the expression 'natural capital', the literature on ecological economics and sustainability generally share this comprehensive and collective way of considering natural resources. For an early definition see D. Pearce, 'Economics, Equity and Sustainable Development', Futures 20 (1988).
75. For a review of the debate see, for example, Martinez Alier, The Environmentalism of the Poor.
76. See Il Capitale, vol. III (Roma: Editori Riuniti 1994), pp. 741-50.
77. See in particular E. Ostrom, 'Coping with Asymmetries in the Commons: Self-Governing Irrigation Systems Can Work', Journal of Economic Perspectives, 4 (1993).
78. Steinberg, Nature Incorporated.
79. On the topic see Rose, Property and Persuasion.
80. See P. Bevilacqua, 'Le rivoluzioni dell'acqua', in Storia dell'agricoltura italiana in età contemporanea., ed. P. Bevilacqua (Venezia: Marsilio 1989);
81. F. Cazzola, Storia delle campagne padane dall'Ottocento a oggi (Milano: Angeli 1996);
82. G. Bigatti, La provincia delle acque. Ambiente, istituzioni e tecnici in Lombardia tra Sette e Ottocento (Milano: Angeli 1995);
83. S. Ciriacono, Building on Water: Venice, Holland, and the Construction of the European Landscape in Early Modern Times (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006);
84. A. Prosperi, Il Padule di Fucecchio: la lunga storia di un ambiente "naturale" (Roma: Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 1995).
85. See for example E. Ostrom, Crafting Institutions for Self-Governing Irrigation Systems (San Francisco, CA: ICS Press, 1992);
86. for an historical example of common property over water in the Mediterranean see D. Guillet, 'Co-Management of Natural Resources: The Long View from Northwestern Spain', Environment and History 8 (2002): 217-36
87. See Property and Persuasion, cit.
88. Nature Incorporated, cit.
89. About the reception of Adam Smith and British economic thought in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, see B. Salvemini, Economia politica e arretratezza meridionale nell'eta del Risorgimento: Luca de Samuele Cagnazzi e la diffusione dello smithianesimo nel Regno di Napoli (Lecce: Milella 1981).
90. On historical relativism related to the study of nature see Donald Worster, 'Nature and the Disorder of History', in Reinventing Nature? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction, ed. M.E. Soulé and G. Lease (Washington, DC/Covelo, CA: Island Press 1995), 65-86.
91. For a critical analysis of the 'commons' narrative see also Baumann, 'Historical Evidence',
92. and Blackmar, 'Appropriating "The Commons"'.