Page 14 - 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. 14
maize to the people!
point out two different main axes of maize diffusion. The first line of dif-
fusion followed the west-east axis (the Po Plain, Venice, Friuli, Trieste and
Rijeka). The second one, which might explain the early diffusion and im-
portance of maize during the seventeenth century in eastern Slovenia (and
Austrian Styria), as well as the exports in the eighteenth century, is the dif-
fusion of maize in and from the Balkans, following the Danube and its trib-
utary rivers from the south-east to the north-west. In Slovenia we see these
two axes converge.
It is evident that, in order to explain these different timings and grades
of maize diffusion, it is necessary to reflect on the reasons for its greater or
lesser success. In the cases considered in this volume, climate seems to mat-
ter but is less important than the agricultural conditions, i.e. landowner-
ship and contracts, cultural habits and the presence of alternative plants.
With regard to climate, it will suffice to note that the areas where
maize encountered its first success were characterized by favourable cli-
matic conditions, namely warm and sufficiently moist summer months. At
the same time, maize cultivation was common in the lowlands and flat-
lands and wherever it was possible to rely on streams. However, from the
eighteenth century onward, the introduction of varieties which could be
successfully cultivated in colder areas and the extraordinary yield ratios
of maize favoured a widespread diffusion to such an extent that during the
nineteenth century wherever the soil and the climate allowed maize culti-
vation the peasants would plant it. Afterwards the diffusion was unstoppa-
ble until it reached the point that in Carinthia maize for silage and grain
was grown on 24,943 hectares or 62.5% of the arable land (Drobesch in this
volume). The same can be said for some areas of Slovenia and, even more
so, of Serbia where 46% of arable land was already devoted to maize in 1867
(Lazarević in this volume).
However, during the first phases of maize diffusion in the early mod-
ern period, climate was a necessary precondition but not the only one. The
local agricultural conditions could be even more important. I refer mostly
to landownership and tenure conditions, that is to say the “relations of pro-
duction”. Where peasants did not own the land, which was mostly the case
in the areas where agriculture was more productive, the landowner’s choic-
es regarding what to sow were determinant. In Bergamasco, for example, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century the Consorzio della Misericordia
Maggiore, the main landowner of the province, opposed maize introduc-
tion since it did not want to run the risk of reducing the amount of land
12
point out two different main axes of maize diffusion. The first line of dif-
fusion followed the west-east axis (the Po Plain, Venice, Friuli, Trieste and
Rijeka). The second one, which might explain the early diffusion and im-
portance of maize during the seventeenth century in eastern Slovenia (and
Austrian Styria), as well as the exports in the eighteenth century, is the dif-
fusion of maize in and from the Balkans, following the Danube and its trib-
utary rivers from the south-east to the north-west. In Slovenia we see these
two axes converge.
It is evident that, in order to explain these different timings and grades
of maize diffusion, it is necessary to reflect on the reasons for its greater or
lesser success. In the cases considered in this volume, climate seems to mat-
ter but is less important than the agricultural conditions, i.e. landowner-
ship and contracts, cultural habits and the presence of alternative plants.
With regard to climate, it will suffice to note that the areas where
maize encountered its first success were characterized by favourable cli-
matic conditions, namely warm and sufficiently moist summer months. At
the same time, maize cultivation was common in the lowlands and flat-
lands and wherever it was possible to rely on streams. However, from the
eighteenth century onward, the introduction of varieties which could be
successfully cultivated in colder areas and the extraordinary yield ratios
of maize favoured a widespread diffusion to such an extent that during the
nineteenth century wherever the soil and the climate allowed maize culti-
vation the peasants would plant it. Afterwards the diffusion was unstoppa-
ble until it reached the point that in Carinthia maize for silage and grain
was grown on 24,943 hectares or 62.5% of the arable land (Drobesch in this
volume). The same can be said for some areas of Slovenia and, even more
so, of Serbia where 46% of arable land was already devoted to maize in 1867
(Lazarević in this volume).
However, during the first phases of maize diffusion in the early mod-
ern period, climate was a necessary precondition but not the only one. The
local agricultural conditions could be even more important. I refer mostly
to landownership and tenure conditions, that is to say the “relations of pro-
duction”. Where peasants did not own the land, which was mostly the case
in the areas where agriculture was more productive, the landowner’s choic-
es regarding what to sow were determinant. In Bergamasco, for example, at
the beginning of the seventeenth century the Consorzio della Misericordia
Maggiore, the main landowner of the province, opposed maize introduc-
tion since it did not want to run the risk of reducing the amount of land
12
