Not so long ago, agricultural land was by far the most important of capital. Starting in the 19th century, this value collapsed dramatically - according to Thomas Piketty from 300% of the annual national income (in Britain and France) in 1800 to a meagre 1% or less in 2000. But today, the ‘age of cheap land’ might be finally over, as concerns over food production in the wake of climate change and conflict, as well as the increasing scarcity of land as a whole, clearly pushed the price of agricultural land higher again in the past decade.
Given the importance of agricultural land as capital it is no wonder that urban based institutions and families accumulated more and more agricultural land as time progressed. In highly urbanized regions like the Low Countries or Italy, urban monasteries, churches, and charitable institutions easily controlled 20 to 30 percent of the land in the wide surroundings of the city, and this share was matched by private owners.
Not only elite families invested heavily in agricultural land: as many urban dwellers had roots in the countryside, they might have inherited some land from their relatives in the countryside. Historians have analysed the urban landownership on the countryside as a formidable driver of rent extraction and capital accumulation (Braudel’s famous ‘Trahison de la Bourgeoisie’). However, such a capital-oriented view of urban landownership might not do justice to the actual meaning of farmland for urban inhabitants and institutional landowners.
At a moment when both the financialization of urban real estate and the market-dependency of urban food supplies are hotly debated, this workshop aims to question the alternative and complementary functions of urban land and landownership:
There was a time when Ghent owned 5,000 hectares of agricultural land. Today that figure is 1,800 hectares, mostly outside the city boundaries. The city in the countryside. What is the story behind that land? Where does its future lie?
STAM turned ten last year... time for a make-over for the permanent exhibition! Since the end of 2020 you can stroll through the new Story of Ghent.
Feel free to touch! A fun children’s trail that leads through every room in the museum. Children become merchants, craftspeople, architects or city trippers and participate in city life. They sell cloth, make coats of arms, face façades and work out routes.
STAM turned ten last year... time for a make-over for the permanent exhibition! Since the end of 2020 you can stroll through the new Story of Ghent.
There was a time when Ghent owned 5,000 hectares of agricultural land. Today that figure is 1,800 hectares, mostly outside the city boundaries. The city in the countryside. What is the story behind that land? Where does its future lie?
