Abstract

In large part of Europe, the turn of the nineteenth century was a key period in the process of rationalization of the property rights and the consolidation of what Marc Bloch called agrarian individualism. The latter unfolded through two interrelated dynamics: the privatizations of the common lands and the restrictions imposed by state authorities to common and customary activities. This article explores the ambivalent relationship between these two aspects in the specific context of the Veneto region (north-eastern Italy) during the first half of the nineteenth century.