“Il mistero del valore dei terreni”. Riflessioni sul capitale nelle bonifiche italiane del XIX e XX secolo (e sulle trasformazioni agrarie contemporanee).

Some historic considerations expressed in Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century regard the value of the so-called virgin land, compared to the value of agricultural land. Such considerations can be red through a geo-historical approach and can be applied, more specifically, to contemporary European land reclamation. The authors' concept of "virgin land" and the assumption of any agricultural transformation as an improvement, can be criticized. Moreover, the focus on "agricultural land value" could be profitably shifted to "agrarian landscape value". Coming, specifically, to some Italian reclamation landscapes, we can say that they have been capital-shaped, being the main expression of agrarian capitalism in Italy. According to Piketty's reflection, the increased value of the soil after land reclamation (compared to the former wetlands' value) appears obvious; nevertheless, the concept of land/landscape value needs to be reconsidered, also in the light of contemporary agrarian transformations.