Page 101 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 101
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
tion on Styria that is more precise. We will stick to Roman Sandgruber,
the author of a still fundamental work on consumption history in Austria,
who had a broad insight and was therefore able to evaluate the situation
in comparative terms. Sandgruber found Burger’s evaluation, according to
which, at the end of the eighteenth century, maize occupied a quarter of
the arable land in the Graz district (present-day Austria) and slightly less
in the Maribor and Celje districts (present-day Slovenia), to be exaggerat-
ed, since later data from the early nineteenth century testify to much low-
er numbers. Nevertheless, in his opinion, it was in the late eighteenth cen-
tury that maize reached the position of the most important basic cereal
in central and southern Styria (Mitte- und Unterland, present-day Austria
and Slovenia). Maize was then an exclusively peasant foodstuff used to bake
bread, since the citizens of Graz did not eat it, but instead used it as animal
fodder (Sandgruber 1982, 47). We may conclude with a look into the peas-
ant probate inventories of the repeatedly cited area south-west of Graz, in
which, towards the end of the eighteenth century, maize took up from one
fifth to one third of all cereals (Brunner 1994, 11).
Maize trade in the eighteenth century: import, provenience
and trade centres
We have so far concentrated on maize cultivation and consumption only,
but to evaluate its diffusion, as a foodstuff in particular, one must not dis-
regard trade. Up to and including the sixteenth century, the Duchy of
Carniola was a cereal exporter and would not import it. In the seventeenth
century, mostly in the second half, grain imports in Carniola through the
Adriatic ports of Trieste and Rijeka increased, although they were still “ex-
ceptional”, limited to bad harvest years and to its karstic areas (south-west-
ern and southern Slovenia) (Valenčič 1977, 31, 48-9).
Among such imports, maize was not mentioned until the first dec-
ades of the eighteenth century. In fact, a description of the economic situ-
ation in Carniola in 1712-1721 reports that, especially in bad harvest years,
maize started to be imported “from Italy, Dalmatia and the Balkan re-
gions” through Trieste and Rijeka. Since a livelier sea trade was developing
there after both towns had been declared duty-free ports by the Austrian
ruler, in the first decades of the century “larger quantities of maize were ar-
riving from the Republic of Venice, the Romagna region [Papal States] and
Turkish lands”. Such maize was then sold mostly in the Classical Karst hin-
terland, but also to Dolenjska (the Ribnica area in particular) and even to
99
tion on Styria that is more precise. We will stick to Roman Sandgruber,
the author of a still fundamental work on consumption history in Austria,
who had a broad insight and was therefore able to evaluate the situation
in comparative terms. Sandgruber found Burger’s evaluation, according to
which, at the end of the eighteenth century, maize occupied a quarter of
the arable land in the Graz district (present-day Austria) and slightly less
in the Maribor and Celje districts (present-day Slovenia), to be exaggerat-
ed, since later data from the early nineteenth century testify to much low-
er numbers. Nevertheless, in his opinion, it was in the late eighteenth cen-
tury that maize reached the position of the most important basic cereal
in central and southern Styria (Mitte- und Unterland, present-day Austria
and Slovenia). Maize was then an exclusively peasant foodstuff used to bake
bread, since the citizens of Graz did not eat it, but instead used it as animal
fodder (Sandgruber 1982, 47). We may conclude with a look into the peas-
ant probate inventories of the repeatedly cited area south-west of Graz, in
which, towards the end of the eighteenth century, maize took up from one
fifth to one third of all cereals (Brunner 1994, 11).
Maize trade in the eighteenth century: import, provenience
and trade centres
We have so far concentrated on maize cultivation and consumption only,
but to evaluate its diffusion, as a foodstuff in particular, one must not dis-
regard trade. Up to and including the sixteenth century, the Duchy of
Carniola was a cereal exporter and would not import it. In the seventeenth
century, mostly in the second half, grain imports in Carniola through the
Adriatic ports of Trieste and Rijeka increased, although they were still “ex-
ceptional”, limited to bad harvest years and to its karstic areas (south-west-
ern and southern Slovenia) (Valenčič 1977, 31, 48-9).
Among such imports, maize was not mentioned until the first dec-
ades of the eighteenth century. In fact, a description of the economic situ-
ation in Carniola in 1712-1721 reports that, especially in bad harvest years,
maize started to be imported “from Italy, Dalmatia and the Balkan re-
gions” through Trieste and Rijeka. Since a livelier sea trade was developing
there after both towns had been declared duty-free ports by the Austrian
ruler, in the first decades of the century “larger quantities of maize were ar-
riving from the Republic of Venice, the Romagna region [Papal States] and
Turkish lands”. Such maize was then sold mostly in the Classical Karst hin-
terland, but also to Dolenjska (the Ribnica area in particular) and even to
99
