Informal Rural Economies in History

[We] contend...that the old system [of tribal and peasant exchange practices] did not disappear [with the growth of more complex systems of economic organization and governance, including state regulation, as well as the advent of the Commercial and Industrial Revolutions in Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries]. Rather, [the old system] evolved over time into what we now call "the rural informal economy:" sets of economic activities that operate outside the formal legalised structures of a nation's capitalist economy. By this we mean that they are based in community or family reciprocities which are usually found in combination with what we might today classify as occupational pluralism, but which initially involved the utilization of a range of ecological niches to provide year-round sustenance. They are, therefore, of necessity both place-specific in operation, and rural. We argue that this "ecological pluralism" — an essential component of the original system—remains a vital part of the rural informal economies of the world today. ---Authors' introduction