Scarcity Versus Abundance: A Case Study of the Hardship and Imminent Starvation in the District of Senožeče in 1864 and 1865

The unusually rainy and cold weather of 1864 caused a disastrous harvest failure in the Senožeče district and its surroundings. By studying the archives of the Imperial Royal Presidency of the province of Carniola and newspaper reports, the present study deals with the broader socio-economic and environmental setting, assembles data on the weather in 1864 placed in a macroregional context, and focuses on the interplay between the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of the vulnerability of farm economy in the area under consideration. The author also draws attention to the diversity of the environments within the analysed Dinaric Karst and the diversity of nineteenth-century farm economies. The study outlines the plight of many farmers during the severe agrarian crisis and the farmers’ and political strategies for overcoming the subsistence crisis.