Mediated and unmediated market dependence in the Flemish countryside in the nineteenth century: two paths of rural development

Recently, several studies have cast new light on the relative roles of commerce and exchange in rural areas. This article examines the importance of extra-local trade in two contrasting regions of the nineteenth-century Flemish countryside, Oudenaarde and Saint-Nicolas. In the first region, the size distribution of holdings was such that market dependence was 'mediated' ; rural output circulated via reciprocal personal relationships. In the second region, market dependence was 'unmediated' and rural producers were more directly involved in the market. The article also highlights the complexity of the commercialisation of the countryside, and the need to move beyond the traditional opposing views that have long dominated the debate on the commercialisation of the countryside.