Page 103 - 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. 103
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
and Austrian northern Adriatic towns, but much more so the Italian
Peninsula (the Po River mouth area, the Papal States, Ancona, Genoa,
Civitavecchia, Livorno and probably Apulia). As far as maize is concerned,
its (specified) destinations were Malta (1,701 stara), Koper (100 stara), Rijeka
area (50 stara), Monfalcone (25 stara), and, last but not least, San Giovanni
near Duino with 1,190 stara.6 The latter was a small port that traditional-
ly supplied the Classical Karst, the city of Gorizia and the countryside, and
the mountains along the Isonzo Valley, meaning that these 100,000 litres
of maize (assuming these stara were Venetian) were probably intended for
rural consumption in these areas.
The origin of the maize exported through Trieste in that year (1766)
is not reported, but in general the cereals from Hungary and the Banat
reached Trieste via Ljubljana, while the other route was through Karlovac
to Rijeka (Andreozzi 2019, 55, 60, 62, 66). In both cases it is very likely that
the first part of the transport was carried out along the Sava River which
reaches both Zagreb (then the land route to Rijeka) and Ljubljana (then the
land route to Trieste). We shall notice that the more costly land route from
Zagreb to Rijeka is about twice as long as that from Ljubljana to Trieste,
making the latter presumably more convenient. For these reasons, we may
assume that maize, same as the other cereals, also arrived to Trieste and
Rijeka at least partly from “Hungary” (comprising the Banat, the pres-
ent-day Serbia and Romania). In evaluating this hypothesis, it may be con-
sidered that maize had been cultivated in the Sava and Danube basin area
(Slavonia, Serbia) at least since the seventeenth century, if not earlier: in
1611-12 it is mentioned in Požega (now Croatia, some 20 km from the Sava
River), while in 1722 in Serbia as much as 31% of the cereal-growing land was
cultivated with maize (and 50% with wheat, Stoianovich 1966, 1027-1028).
This Sava hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that half a century lat-
er (1817-22) consistent amounts of maize were imported to Ljubljana from
the south via the Sava River waterway (Valenčič 1977, 68). Apart from this
probable mainland route, during the year 1766 additional 16,996 stara of
wheat, 61,452 of maize, 1,225 of barley, 1,860 of rye, and 8,013 of oats of un-
specified provenience arrived to Trieste by sea. Later on (1782), Trieste ex-
ported maize to the Levante, while wheat was arriving from Lombardy and
the Province of Ferrara in Italy (Andreozzi 2019, 60, 68), and in 1873 the ex-
port by sea of “wheat, rye and maize” continued (Panjek G. 2003, 275).
6 I wish to thank Daniele Andreozzi for the additional information he gave me on
these quantities; see his article cited below.
101
and Austrian northern Adriatic towns, but much more so the Italian
Peninsula (the Po River mouth area, the Papal States, Ancona, Genoa,
Civitavecchia, Livorno and probably Apulia). As far as maize is concerned,
its (specified) destinations were Malta (1,701 stara), Koper (100 stara), Rijeka
area (50 stara), Monfalcone (25 stara), and, last but not least, San Giovanni
near Duino with 1,190 stara.6 The latter was a small port that traditional-
ly supplied the Classical Karst, the city of Gorizia and the countryside, and
the mountains along the Isonzo Valley, meaning that these 100,000 litres
of maize (assuming these stara were Venetian) were probably intended for
rural consumption in these areas.
The origin of the maize exported through Trieste in that year (1766)
is not reported, but in general the cereals from Hungary and the Banat
reached Trieste via Ljubljana, while the other route was through Karlovac
to Rijeka (Andreozzi 2019, 55, 60, 62, 66). In both cases it is very likely that
the first part of the transport was carried out along the Sava River which
reaches both Zagreb (then the land route to Rijeka) and Ljubljana (then the
land route to Trieste). We shall notice that the more costly land route from
Zagreb to Rijeka is about twice as long as that from Ljubljana to Trieste,
making the latter presumably more convenient. For these reasons, we may
assume that maize, same as the other cereals, also arrived to Trieste and
Rijeka at least partly from “Hungary” (comprising the Banat, the pres-
ent-day Serbia and Romania). In evaluating this hypothesis, it may be con-
sidered that maize had been cultivated in the Sava and Danube basin area
(Slavonia, Serbia) at least since the seventeenth century, if not earlier: in
1611-12 it is mentioned in Požega (now Croatia, some 20 km from the Sava
River), while in 1722 in Serbia as much as 31% of the cereal-growing land was
cultivated with maize (and 50% with wheat, Stoianovich 1966, 1027-1028).
This Sava hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that half a century lat-
er (1817-22) consistent amounts of maize were imported to Ljubljana from
the south via the Sava River waterway (Valenčič 1977, 68). Apart from this
probable mainland route, during the year 1766 additional 16,996 stara of
wheat, 61,452 of maize, 1,225 of barley, 1,860 of rye, and 8,013 of oats of un-
specified provenience arrived to Trieste by sea. Later on (1782), Trieste ex-
ported maize to the Levante, while wheat was arriving from Lombardy and
the Province of Ferrara in Italy (Andreozzi 2019, 60, 68), and in 1873 the ex-
port by sea of “wheat, rye and maize” continued (Panjek G. 2003, 275).
6 I wish to thank Daniele Andreozzi for the additional information he gave me on
these quantities; see his article cited below.
101
