Page 33 - 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. 33
maize diffusion in the republic of venice: the case of the province of vicenza
Map 1. Percentage of minor cereals in the total amount of cereals (minor and wheat)
produced in 1545
Source: BCB
tion of maize? Many sources seem to exclude the presence of the new cere-
al until the 1570s, or at least it was not reported in the state surveys on ag-
ricultural production and was not used as payment in kind for workers in
the fields or in factories. Obviously, this does not mean that maize was un-
known (even if there is no proof of the contrary), however, if it was culti-
vated in the gardens of peasants, it did not play a relevant role in terms of
human nutrition. Indeed, the analysis of the accounting books of a rural
merchant who lived and operated in Schio, Antonio Razzante, dated 1550-
1574, shows that even if almost all the workers who came from a wide ge-
ographical area and who were employed in various economic sectors re-
31
Map 1. Percentage of minor cereals in the total amount of cereals (minor and wheat)
produced in 1545
Source: BCB
tion of maize? Many sources seem to exclude the presence of the new cere-
al until the 1570s, or at least it was not reported in the state surveys on ag-
ricultural production and was not used as payment in kind for workers in
the fields or in factories. Obviously, this does not mean that maize was un-
known (even if there is no proof of the contrary), however, if it was culti-
vated in the gardens of peasants, it did not play a relevant role in terms of
human nutrition. Indeed, the analysis of the accounting books of a rural
merchant who lived and operated in Schio, Antonio Razzante, dated 1550-
1574, shows that even if almost all the workers who came from a wide ge-
ographical area and who were employed in various economic sectors re-
31
