Page 21 - 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. 21
maize in the north-eastern mediterranean: new insights and researches
tions and divergence are calculated taking into account only the urban
prices of wheat, mainly in the big cities, ignoring other towns, rural mar-
kets and maize. The flaw of such an approach seems very evident (Hatcher,
Stephenson 2018) and has produced unconvincing general statements as to
the little divergence between Northern and Southern Europe (Mocarelli,
Ongaro 2019, 131-140).
The last important issue to deal with is the demographic consequenc-
es of maize diffusion and, in particular, the hypothesis that its widespread
diffusion was crucial in diminishing famines in Southern Europe. In con-
sequence, starting in the eighteenth century, there was room for the pop-
ulation to grow faster than before (Alfani, Mocarelli, Strangio 2017, 46-47).
However, in some territories, this change happened even earlier. As Alessio
Fornasin clearly shows in this volume, the spread of maize in an area of
Friuli during the seventeenth century directly affected population growth.
This connection “seems to work in Malthusian terms: the introduction of
maize stimulated population growth and not vice versa”. This path of re-
search seems very interesting but not yet well practised. More studies in
this direction will allow us to abandon a negative view of the consequenc-
es of maize diffusion, focused only on the spread of pellagra, and to make
fruitful comparisons with the growth of potato consumption in Northern
Europe. It is an important issue because, if maize in Southern Europe
played the same role as potatoes in northern countries, we find nothing
comparable to the Irish potato famine in southern countries.
In conclusion, I think that the contributions in this volume show the
importance of dealing with maize diffusion, its modalities and conse-
quences, and offer us some stimulating new insights into this issue. The
awareness that we need more studies on Mediterranean countries, such as
France, Spain, the Balkans, in order to get a more comprehensive view of
the history of this pivotal crop is surely a good start.
Literature
Alfani, G. 2010. ‘Climate, population and famine in Northern Italy: general
tendencies and Malthusian crisis, ca. 1450-1800’. Annales de Démogra phie
Historique 120: 23-53
Alfani, G. 2011. ‘The Famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy. An Analysis of the
Greatest “System Shock” of Sixteenth Century’. Histoire & mesure, 16-1:
17-50
19
tions and divergence are calculated taking into account only the urban
prices of wheat, mainly in the big cities, ignoring other towns, rural mar-
kets and maize. The flaw of such an approach seems very evident (Hatcher,
Stephenson 2018) and has produced unconvincing general statements as to
the little divergence between Northern and Southern Europe (Mocarelli,
Ongaro 2019, 131-140).
The last important issue to deal with is the demographic consequenc-
es of maize diffusion and, in particular, the hypothesis that its widespread
diffusion was crucial in diminishing famines in Southern Europe. In con-
sequence, starting in the eighteenth century, there was room for the pop-
ulation to grow faster than before (Alfani, Mocarelli, Strangio 2017, 46-47).
However, in some territories, this change happened even earlier. As Alessio
Fornasin clearly shows in this volume, the spread of maize in an area of
Friuli during the seventeenth century directly affected population growth.
This connection “seems to work in Malthusian terms: the introduction of
maize stimulated population growth and not vice versa”. This path of re-
search seems very interesting but not yet well practised. More studies in
this direction will allow us to abandon a negative view of the consequenc-
es of maize diffusion, focused only on the spread of pellagra, and to make
fruitful comparisons with the growth of potato consumption in Northern
Europe. It is an important issue because, if maize in Southern Europe
played the same role as potatoes in northern countries, we find nothing
comparable to the Irish potato famine in southern countries.
In conclusion, I think that the contributions in this volume show the
importance of dealing with maize diffusion, its modalities and conse-
quences, and offer us some stimulating new insights into this issue. The
awareness that we need more studies on Mediterranean countries, such as
France, Spain, the Balkans, in order to get a more comprehensive view of
the history of this pivotal crop is surely a good start.
Literature
Alfani, G. 2010. ‘Climate, population and famine in Northern Italy: general
tendencies and Malthusian crisis, ca. 1450-1800’. Annales de Démogra phie
Historique 120: 23-53
Alfani, G. 2011. ‘The Famine of the 1590s in Northern Italy. An Analysis of the
Greatest “System Shock” of Sixteenth Century’. Histoire & mesure, 16-1:
17-50
19
