Page 38 - 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. 38
maize to the people!
tially in peasant gardens, because it ‘eluded’ the tithes and the obligations
to transport part of the cereals to the cities, first for use in animal breed-
ing, and later for self-consumption (Gasparini 2002, 17; Alfani 2010, 232-
233; Cazzola 1991, 112-113). The examples referring to Creazzo (1570) and San
Vito (1572) can be read in this sense, even if the sources do not refer explic-
itly to the real use of the cereal. The cultivation of maize on aristocratic es-
tates, the increase in the amounts harvested, and the inclusion of the cere-
al in agrarian contracts and in the tithes in the 1590s suggest its precocious
diffusion and, almost certainly, its inclusion in the local and supralocal
commercial channels. The research by Mocarelli and Vaquero Piñeiro on
the grain market in Lombard and Umbrian cities in the eighteenth centu-
ry, among others, confirms the validity of the price trend as an indicator of
the market integration and of the role played in it by maize (Mocarelli and
Vaquero Piñeiro 2018, 21, 25, 42-43). Briefly, a high correlation of price series
suggests the development of a commercial space, thanks to the cereals that
show common trends. For this reason, the connection of the price trends
of various cereals has been interpreted as a valid indicator of their level of
commercialization (Mocarelli and Vaquero Piñeiro 2018, 21, 42; Gasparini
2002, 13); therefore, if this level is high, their consumption would be re-
leased from mere self-consumption (that could exist regardless) and they
were certainly included in broader commercial circuits. Giovanni Levi, too,
asserts that maize “reached the markets later compared to when it became a
relevant crop, and was even more slowly included in the surveys of market
Graph 1. Wheat and maize prices in San Vito, 1587-1708 (decimalized Venetian lire per staio)
Source: ASCSv
36
tially in peasant gardens, because it ‘eluded’ the tithes and the obligations
to transport part of the cereals to the cities, first for use in animal breed-
ing, and later for self-consumption (Gasparini 2002, 17; Alfani 2010, 232-
233; Cazzola 1991, 112-113). The examples referring to Creazzo (1570) and San
Vito (1572) can be read in this sense, even if the sources do not refer explic-
itly to the real use of the cereal. The cultivation of maize on aristocratic es-
tates, the increase in the amounts harvested, and the inclusion of the cere-
al in agrarian contracts and in the tithes in the 1590s suggest its precocious
diffusion and, almost certainly, its inclusion in the local and supralocal
commercial channels. The research by Mocarelli and Vaquero Piñeiro on
the grain market in Lombard and Umbrian cities in the eighteenth centu-
ry, among others, confirms the validity of the price trend as an indicator of
the market integration and of the role played in it by maize (Mocarelli and
Vaquero Piñeiro 2018, 21, 25, 42-43). Briefly, a high correlation of price series
suggests the development of a commercial space, thanks to the cereals that
show common trends. For this reason, the connection of the price trends
of various cereals has been interpreted as a valid indicator of their level of
commercialization (Mocarelli and Vaquero Piñeiro 2018, 21, 42; Gasparini
2002, 13); therefore, if this level is high, their consumption would be re-
leased from mere self-consumption (that could exist regardless) and they
were certainly included in broader commercial circuits. Giovanni Levi, too,
asserts that maize “reached the markets later compared to when it became a
relevant crop, and was even more slowly included in the surveys of market
Graph 1. Wheat and maize prices in San Vito, 1587-1708 (decimalized Venetian lire per staio)
Source: ASCSv
36
