Page 17 - 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. 17
maize in the north-eastern mediterranean: new insights and researches
sons for the late diffusion of potatoes in Italy was the peasants’ indifference
toward a crop that grew under the soil and was consequently considered
dangerous and even capable of transmitting leprosy. After all, in 1765 the
Encyclopédie defined the potato thus: “elle ne sauroit être comptée parmi les
alimens agréables... On reproche avec raison à la pomme de terre d’être ven-
teuse; mais qu’est-ce que des vents pour les organes vigoureux des paysans
& des manoeuvres?” (Encyclopédie 1765, ad vocem).
The same could be said of maize since at the beginning peasants had
to make do with a crop suitable for both animal and human nutrition; later
on, some doubts arose mostly in the areas where peasants were used to oth-
er crops. Thus, for a certain period the consumption of maize among the
rural population was hindered due to mistrust (Levi 1979), although there
is evidence that in northern Italy maize substituted the traditional food of
the peasants during the crises of the second half of the sixteenth century
(Cazzola 1991). In other territories, as Zarko Lazarevic clearly shows in this
volume, the local population could be very strongly attached to traditional
crops. That was the case in some parts of Slovenia, where buckwheat dom-
inated for centuries, slowing the advance of maize.
Despite these important differences among territories, maize culti-
vation has increased impressively in the countries considered in this vol-
ume, especially from the eighteenth century onward. This huge increase in
production requires tackling an important, usually underestimated, issue,
namely that of maize as a marketable crop that is not used only for self-con-
sumption. It is necessary to overcome the simplistic idea that “a dualistic
cereal growing… took place: the wheat one, market-oriented; the maize
one, the key element of subsistence and a poor economy” (Doria 2002, 572).
In fact, in many territories, starting with the eighteenth century, it is easy
to find a dual grain market based on wheat on the one hand and on maize
on the other.
In northern Italy, wheat and white bread dominated only in the main
cities such as Milan, where the consumption of wheat accounted for more
than 80% of total consumption. In Como, a much smaller town close to the
mountains, the consumption of wheat in normal years was just below 50%
of total consumption. Maize made up the difference, particularly in bad
harvest years. In fact, on the Como market wheat amounted to between
45% and 48% of cereals sold during the good harvest years, while in the bad
years, wheat only amounted to between 35% and 37% of the total (these data
were taken from the State Archive registers in Como, Archivio storico civ-
15
sons for the late diffusion of potatoes in Italy was the peasants’ indifference
toward a crop that grew under the soil and was consequently considered
dangerous and even capable of transmitting leprosy. After all, in 1765 the
Encyclopédie defined the potato thus: “elle ne sauroit être comptée parmi les
alimens agréables... On reproche avec raison à la pomme de terre d’être ven-
teuse; mais qu’est-ce que des vents pour les organes vigoureux des paysans
& des manoeuvres?” (Encyclopédie 1765, ad vocem).
The same could be said of maize since at the beginning peasants had
to make do with a crop suitable for both animal and human nutrition; later
on, some doubts arose mostly in the areas where peasants were used to oth-
er crops. Thus, for a certain period the consumption of maize among the
rural population was hindered due to mistrust (Levi 1979), although there
is evidence that in northern Italy maize substituted the traditional food of
the peasants during the crises of the second half of the sixteenth century
(Cazzola 1991). In other territories, as Zarko Lazarevic clearly shows in this
volume, the local population could be very strongly attached to traditional
crops. That was the case in some parts of Slovenia, where buckwheat dom-
inated for centuries, slowing the advance of maize.
Despite these important differences among territories, maize culti-
vation has increased impressively in the countries considered in this vol-
ume, especially from the eighteenth century onward. This huge increase in
production requires tackling an important, usually underestimated, issue,
namely that of maize as a marketable crop that is not used only for self-con-
sumption. It is necessary to overcome the simplistic idea that “a dualistic
cereal growing… took place: the wheat one, market-oriented; the maize
one, the key element of subsistence and a poor economy” (Doria 2002, 572).
In fact, in many territories, starting with the eighteenth century, it is easy
to find a dual grain market based on wheat on the one hand and on maize
on the other.
In northern Italy, wheat and white bread dominated only in the main
cities such as Milan, where the consumption of wheat accounted for more
than 80% of total consumption. In Como, a much smaller town close to the
mountains, the consumption of wheat in normal years was just below 50%
of total consumption. Maize made up the difference, particularly in bad
harvest years. In fact, on the Como market wheat amounted to between
45% and 48% of cereals sold during the good harvest years, while in the bad
years, wheat only amounted to between 35% and 37% of the total (these data
were taken from the State Archive registers in Como, Archivio storico civ-
15
