Page 32 - 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. 32
maize to the people!
agricultural sector was left in the shadow (Ongaro 2017), despite some ex-
ceptions (Ferrarese 2008). During the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the
city of Vicenza, approximately at the centre of the province, experienced a
relevant economic and demographic development (same as many villag-
es in the countryside) thanks to the wool production (first) and to the silk
one (second). Furthermore, significant ore bodies in the area close to the
mountains had been attracting investments by citizens and Venetian pa-
tricians since the end of the fifteenth century (Fontana and Vergani 2003).
However, beyond the mining activities, since the sixteenth century – and
with an almost uninterrupted growth until the nineteenth century – the
area of the province close to the mountains was characterized by a relevant
production of wool textiles and raw silk. In the large villages recalled above
(Arzignano, Valdagno, Schio), some inhabitants asserted that during their
lives they were employed only in the secondary sector, as weavers or wool
combers (Vianello 2004). Moreover, even those who were not specialized
workers in the textile sector, were involved in the context of a pronounced
integrated peasant economy (Panjek, Larsson, and Mocarelli 2017); daily
work in the fields was often accompanied by transporting goods for rural
merchants, by breeding silkworms, silk reeling and spinning, weaving in
peasants’ houses, and working in kaolin mines (Demo and Ongaro 2020).
Regarding the agricultural sector, as anticipated there are no specific re-
searches able to clarify the size of the estates, the contracts used, and the cul-
tivation techniques: Andrea Ferrarese wrote, referring to the first phase of
expansion of the urban properties in the countryside between the fifteenth
century and the beginning of the sixteenth, that the agrarian landscape of
the Province of Vicenza was characterized by “a general absence of appoder-
amento processes, a strong fragmentation of the estates, and by a persistent
rigidness of agrarian structures” (Ferrarese 2008, 289). During the sixteenth
century, it seems that the situation changed, precisely because of the grad-
ual increase in the urban properties in the countryside, but recent research
seems to confirm the absence of large estates with sharecropping contracts
and, on the contrary, the potential persistence of small estates or the pres-
ence of large estates cultivated by day labourers (Ongaro 2020).
In this context of a mountainous/hilly territory, with a relevant de-
mographic weight, an economic structure based mainly on the secondary
sector, especially in the area close to the mountains, and characterized by
the absence of relevant sharecropping structures, what was the food of the
peasants in the sixteenth century? When is it possible to date the introduc-
30
agricultural sector was left in the shadow (Ongaro 2017), despite some ex-
ceptions (Ferrarese 2008). During the fifteenth and sixteenth century, the
city of Vicenza, approximately at the centre of the province, experienced a
relevant economic and demographic development (same as many villag-
es in the countryside) thanks to the wool production (first) and to the silk
one (second). Furthermore, significant ore bodies in the area close to the
mountains had been attracting investments by citizens and Venetian pa-
tricians since the end of the fifteenth century (Fontana and Vergani 2003).
However, beyond the mining activities, since the sixteenth century – and
with an almost uninterrupted growth until the nineteenth century – the
area of the province close to the mountains was characterized by a relevant
production of wool textiles and raw silk. In the large villages recalled above
(Arzignano, Valdagno, Schio), some inhabitants asserted that during their
lives they were employed only in the secondary sector, as weavers or wool
combers (Vianello 2004). Moreover, even those who were not specialized
workers in the textile sector, were involved in the context of a pronounced
integrated peasant economy (Panjek, Larsson, and Mocarelli 2017); daily
work in the fields was often accompanied by transporting goods for rural
merchants, by breeding silkworms, silk reeling and spinning, weaving in
peasants’ houses, and working in kaolin mines (Demo and Ongaro 2020).
Regarding the agricultural sector, as anticipated there are no specific re-
searches able to clarify the size of the estates, the contracts used, and the cul-
tivation techniques: Andrea Ferrarese wrote, referring to the first phase of
expansion of the urban properties in the countryside between the fifteenth
century and the beginning of the sixteenth, that the agrarian landscape of
the Province of Vicenza was characterized by “a general absence of appoder-
amento processes, a strong fragmentation of the estates, and by a persistent
rigidness of agrarian structures” (Ferrarese 2008, 289). During the sixteenth
century, it seems that the situation changed, precisely because of the grad-
ual increase in the urban properties in the countryside, but recent research
seems to confirm the absence of large estates with sharecropping contracts
and, on the contrary, the potential persistence of small estates or the pres-
ence of large estates cultivated by day labourers (Ongaro 2020).
In this context of a mountainous/hilly territory, with a relevant de-
mographic weight, an economic structure based mainly on the secondary
sector, especially in the area close to the mountains, and characterized by
the absence of relevant sharecropping structures, what was the food of the
peasants in the sixteenth century? When is it possible to date the introduc-
30
