SMALL-SCALE LOCAL AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD. DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTS

Abstract

The agrarian reform of 1921 aggravated the contrasts between large, medium, and small-scale land properties, putting once more into focus the fact that the Romanian agricultural economy was based on the large properties, while the social economy was primarily focused on subsistence, which was specific to the second category of properties. The literature nevertheless shows that in December of 1918, the data on the population of the Kingdom of Romania were only approximate. With archival records indicating that from the last censuses until 1918, all the Romanian provinces experienced significant demographic changes caused by natural population growth, emigration, and immigration, colonization, and, above all, the impact and vicissitudes of the Great War, such data only served as indicative elements in estimating the post-war population with a view to a better understanding of the issues of the interwar rural areas.