The Peasant Household Under Tuscan Mezzadria: a Socioeconomic Analysis of Some Sienese Mezzadri Households,1591-1640

This article, which is based on a study of 233 mezzadri households, argues that the structures, developmental cycles, and social relationships of these households can be understood only within the context of an analysis of mez zadria, the system of agricultural production of early modern Tuscany. Varia tions in household size and type are thus explained in terms of the diverse food outputs and labor requirements of leaseholds. Similarly, the instability of familial relations and the insecurity of tenancies are traced to the contradiction between the relatively fixed food supplies of farms and the increasing food needs of grow ing tenant households. The article reveals that food crises were often either delayed or lessened and household growth promoted by certain forces present in mezzadria, such as the lending of cereals by the landlord and the merger of lease holds. The patrilocal and patriarchal familial relations of the households are also shown to have forestalled these crises. Finally, the article demonstrates that households which borrowed heavily or regularly were sometimes forced to divide or were evicted by the landlord.