ABSTRACT
In terms of infant mortality, dietary deficiencies, levels of indebtedness, the Romanian peasant in the inter-war period had one of the lowest standards of living in eastern Europe. Throughout the nineteenth century, the sanctity of private property was guaranteed in Romania by law and, at least for the boier, sustained by the economic system of tenant farming and professional management. This chapter examines the land reforms that were introduced, the ways in which they were implemented and some of the effects that they had. It first examines the international context which, once again, exposed the country's vulnerability to fluctuations of the market; and, secondly, considers the domestic agrarian policies which were introduced to modernise agriculture and to stimulate the development of the industrial sector. One example of a contemporaneous bottom-up approach to rural life was a scholarly interest in folk culture which focused on the lives of the peasants as actually lived.
