Page 118 - 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. 118
maize to the people!
“Moravia produces quite a lot of maize in Brno and in the Hradischer dis-
trict, bordering Hungary. It is also often planted in Württemberg […] and
its culture grows there every year. There is also extensive maize cultiva-
tion in Tyrol, Switzerland and Alsace, where they cultivate large fields with
it.” (Burger 1809, 79). On the other hand, in many territories of the Holy
Roman Empire, namely in “Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Franconia,
the Lower Rhine area, Saxony, [and] the Marches”, which had an unfavour-
able climate for growing maize, no maize was grown at all, or it was of such
“poor quality that it could not be grown as a crop” (Burger 1809, 83). The
crop yields were correspondingly low. In Austria and Moravia there were
no more than 12 hectolitres per 0.01 hectares. Carinthia was slightly better
in this regard. There, the yield averaged 24 to 30 hectolitres per 0.01 hec-
tares. That was a good amount because, according to Burger, 42 hectolitres
per 0.01 hectares were “with our current knowledge and tools” the greatest
possible yield (Burger 1809, 291).
Every beginning is hard
At this point in time, maize cultivation was no longer a revolution for
Carinthian agriculture. It had spread too much, even if it was far from
widespread. The beginnings go back to the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Its first appearance can be documented as early as 1559 (Wadl 1987,
240). A business letter between a landlord and his administrator is the old-
est archival source in the area of present-day Austria in which maize is
mentioned. It mentions that the economic administrator of the Gurk ca-
thedral, Wilhelm Wernher von Wernhof – the “Wernhof” is a noble es-
tate in central Carinthia near Althofen –, sent his brother-in-law Hans
Raidhaupt an unspecified amount of maize with the request to forward it
to the earl of Hardegg: “I would like to thank Wernher for the türkischen
Weizen [Turkish wheat]” (Wadl 1987, 240). This mention proves that the
maize which had come to Carinthia shortly before that time – here referred
to as “Turkish wheat” – was occasionally cultivated in the Krappfeld re-
gion. However, it is not clear where it came from and whether Wilhelm von
Wernhof harvested it at Krappfeld or received it from a third party. In view
of the detailed mention and the special thanks for the gift, it may be as-
sumed that maize was still a rarity in Carinthia in 1559. Wilhelm Wernher
probably came into possession of the seeds due to the far-reaching relation-
ships of the Gurk bishop. Bishop Antonius von Salamanca-Hoyos (1526-
1551) had family ties with Spain, which would make a direct import from
116
“Moravia produces quite a lot of maize in Brno and in the Hradischer dis-
trict, bordering Hungary. It is also often planted in Württemberg […] and
its culture grows there every year. There is also extensive maize cultiva-
tion in Tyrol, Switzerland and Alsace, where they cultivate large fields with
it.” (Burger 1809, 79). On the other hand, in many territories of the Holy
Roman Empire, namely in “Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Franconia,
the Lower Rhine area, Saxony, [and] the Marches”, which had an unfavour-
able climate for growing maize, no maize was grown at all, or it was of such
“poor quality that it could not be grown as a crop” (Burger 1809, 83). The
crop yields were correspondingly low. In Austria and Moravia there were
no more than 12 hectolitres per 0.01 hectares. Carinthia was slightly better
in this regard. There, the yield averaged 24 to 30 hectolitres per 0.01 hec-
tares. That was a good amount because, according to Burger, 42 hectolitres
per 0.01 hectares were “with our current knowledge and tools” the greatest
possible yield (Burger 1809, 291).
Every beginning is hard
At this point in time, maize cultivation was no longer a revolution for
Carinthian agriculture. It had spread too much, even if it was far from
widespread. The beginnings go back to the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury. Its first appearance can be documented as early as 1559 (Wadl 1987,
240). A business letter between a landlord and his administrator is the old-
est archival source in the area of present-day Austria in which maize is
mentioned. It mentions that the economic administrator of the Gurk ca-
thedral, Wilhelm Wernher von Wernhof – the “Wernhof” is a noble es-
tate in central Carinthia near Althofen –, sent his brother-in-law Hans
Raidhaupt an unspecified amount of maize with the request to forward it
to the earl of Hardegg: “I would like to thank Wernher for the türkischen
Weizen [Turkish wheat]” (Wadl 1987, 240). This mention proves that the
maize which had come to Carinthia shortly before that time – here referred
to as “Turkish wheat” – was occasionally cultivated in the Krappfeld re-
gion. However, it is not clear where it came from and whether Wilhelm von
Wernhof harvested it at Krappfeld or received it from a third party. In view
of the detailed mention and the special thanks for the gift, it may be as-
sumed that maize was still a rarity in Carinthia in 1559. Wilhelm Wernher
probably came into possession of the seeds due to the far-reaching relation-
ships of the Gurk bishop. Bishop Antonius von Salamanca-Hoyos (1526-
1551) had family ties with Spain, which would make a direct import from
116
