Transformation processes in Alpine dairy farming during the late nineteenth century

The introduction of hard cheese making on common mountain pastures of the ‘Unterland’ in Northern Tyrol

Abstract

The paper deals with the impact of hard cheese production on the management of common land in Northern Tyrol during the late nineteenth century. Compared to other Alpine regions, especially to Switzerland, hard cheese making emerged comparatively late in Northern Tyrol, but was established within a few decades. This resulted from the rural structures evolved by the middle of the nineteenth century, particularly the existence of large Alpine pastures. In
illuminating central features of the transformation process, the article focuses on the integration of hard cheese production into traditional modes of Alpine farming, the development of new forms of cooperation among peasants and the rise of a specialised, exclusively masculine labour force (‘Schweizer’). Furthermore, the flexible resilience of the common property regime on the Alps in an increasingly commercialised environment attracts particular
attention. On the whole, it is shown that hard cheese making was more than a simple addition to Northern Tyrol’s livestock farming. By using statistics and newspapers as indicators it becomes apparent that this expanding sector changed the economic and social structures surrounding common pastures profoundly.