Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FARMACCOUNTA (Farm Accountancy Data as a Source for the History of European Agriculture)
Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-08-31
The project studied the creation of farm accountancy data series in interwar Europe and determined how these data can be exploited to study the Great Depression of the 1930s. It focused on the data published by the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) and, in particular, on farm accountancy data Recueils de statistiques basées sur les données de la comptabilité agricole (1927-1937), by studying their genesis and the political coalition that underpinned the process of data creation.
The importance of the project is multifold:
1. The Europe-wide spread of farm accounting offices shows a model of technological diffusion through cooperative institutions.
2. By addressing the role of the International Institute of Agriculture, the project contributed to our understanding of the role of data in multilateral economic governance.
3. By studying a network of farm accountancy offices, the project improves our knowledge of the origins of a key piece of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy, namely the Farm Accountancy Data Network.
4. By paving the way to the creation of a series of farm accounting data covering the interwar period, the project will enable a better understanding of the impact of rising protectionism on economic performance.
The project fostered a better understanding of the role of farmers’ unions and agricultural experts in promoting the modernisation of European agriculture at the beginning of the 20th century. The publications that are now coming out of it and are either under review or in preparation open up new perspectives on our understanding of the Great Depression of the 1930s in Europe, showing how farmers tried to argue in favour of policies in the international arena. Finally, the analysis of the IIA series Recueils de statistiques basées sur les données de la comptabilité agricole proved the feasibility of the ERC-funded project DATAREV, which I have recently started.
The importance of the project is multifold:
1. The Europe-wide spread of farm accounting offices shows a model of technological diffusion through cooperative institutions.
2. By addressing the role of the International Institute of Agriculture, the project contributed to our understanding of the role of data in multilateral economic governance.
3. By studying a network of farm accountancy offices, the project improves our knowledge of the origins of a key piece of the European Union Common Agricultural Policy, namely the Farm Accountancy Data Network.
4. By paving the way to the creation of a series of farm accounting data covering the interwar period, the project will enable a better understanding of the impact of rising protectionism on economic performance.
The project fostered a better understanding of the role of farmers’ unions and agricultural experts in promoting the modernisation of European agriculture at the beginning of the 20th century. The publications that are now coming out of it and are either under review or in preparation open up new perspectives on our understanding of the Great Depression of the 1930s in Europe, showing how farmers tried to argue in favour of policies in the international arena. Finally, the analysis of the IIA series Recueils de statistiques basées sur les données de la comptabilité agricole proved the feasibility of the ERC-funded project DATAREV, which I have recently started.
The COVID 19 pandemic greatly reduced the possibility to visit archives that were essential to the completion of the project. Despite this situation, a first survey of the main accounting offices in Europe was conducted. In particular, the Library of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Basel, the Federal Swiss Archive and the Archive for Agricultural History of Bern enabled me to research the power networks that made the creation of an international series of farm accountancy data possible, while the archive of the Food and Agricultural Organization delivered a wealth of material on international agricultural statistics of the early 20th century.
What emerged from the research is that:
• the network of farm accountancy offices that is at the origins of the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the European Union arose in the 1910s and 1920s through a combined action of farmers’ leaders from across the Continent who had scientific and political legitimation alike.
• farm accounting offices required, in order to function, a high degree of consensus among farmers, and the diffusion of book-keeping techniques among farmers was the result of a two-ways process of adaptation of farmers and accounting experts.
• There is a high degree of continuity between the farmers’ organizations that promoted the creation of accounting offices in the 1910s and 1920s, and those who tried to govern international markets for agricultural commodities in the 1900s with the creation of the International Institute of Agriculture.
• Many of the concerns with global markets that dominated the 1920s and 1930s had emerged previously around the century turn as concerns with an unregulated financialization of global markets.
As a result I was able to present in different occasions, as part of the dissemination strategy, on the functioning of farm accounting offices, on the network of European farmers’ leaders, on the creation of international agricultural statistics. Unfortunately, the restrictions determined by the pandemics significantly disrupted the process of writing. Two articles are now close to completion: one already submitted on the International Institute of Agriculture and its statistics and one almost ready for submission (on Laur’s international network). Other publications will follow within and beyond the framework of the project. In particular, together with Nathalie Joly I am submitting a book proposal to Boydell Publishers for an edited volume on accounting and book-keeping in agriculture and with Niccolò Mignemi I am preparing a special issue on data in agricultural which has been accepted by the journal Histoire et Mésure
What emerged from the research is that:
• the network of farm accountancy offices that is at the origins of the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the European Union arose in the 1910s and 1920s through a combined action of farmers’ leaders from across the Continent who had scientific and political legitimation alike.
• farm accounting offices required, in order to function, a high degree of consensus among farmers, and the diffusion of book-keeping techniques among farmers was the result of a two-ways process of adaptation of farmers and accounting experts.
• There is a high degree of continuity between the farmers’ organizations that promoted the creation of accounting offices in the 1910s and 1920s, and those who tried to govern international markets for agricultural commodities in the 1900s with the creation of the International Institute of Agriculture.
• Many of the concerns with global markets that dominated the 1920s and 1930s had emerged previously around the century turn as concerns with an unregulated financialization of global markets.
As a result I was able to present in different occasions, as part of the dissemination strategy, on the functioning of farm accounting offices, on the network of European farmers’ leaders, on the creation of international agricultural statistics. Unfortunately, the restrictions determined by the pandemics significantly disrupted the process of writing. Two articles are now close to completion: one already submitted on the International Institute of Agriculture and its statistics and one almost ready for submission (on Laur’s international network). Other publications will follow within and beyond the framework of the project. In particular, together with Nathalie Joly I am submitting a book proposal to Boydell Publishers for an edited volume on accounting and book-keeping in agriculture and with Niccolò Mignemi I am preparing a special issue on data in agricultural which has been accepted by the journal Histoire et Mésure
The project affirmed the centrality of farm accountancy data not only as quantitative information on early 20th century farms, but also as the results of a complex governance of European agriculture. It showed how scientific legitimacy and political consensus went hand in hand in the construction of agricultural policy and how data production rested on farmers’ engagement and consensus. These results will impact not only discussions on the history of European agriculture, but also discussions on the social construction of data. To a dominant approach that stresses the top-down and constructivist elements of data production, the project results add a new dimension, that of participation and highlight the material constraints that constructivist approaches tend to forget.
The project laid the foundation for the ERC funded DATAREV project which will complete the creation of a database of historical farm accountancy data and enable the creation of long series of farm data concerning European agriculture, potentially connecting with the series of the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the European Union. This connection would make the data impactful among agricultural economists as well that would be able to use the data for quantitative analysis.
The project laid the foundation for the ERC funded DATAREV project which will complete the creation of a database of historical farm accountancy data and enable the creation of long series of farm data concerning European agriculture, potentially connecting with the series of the Farm Accountancy Data Network of the European Union. This connection would make the data impactful among agricultural economists as well that would be able to use the data for quantitative analysis.