Page 51 - 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. 51
maize in umbr ia (centr al italy)
crease in maize crops and the increase in livestock, especially bovine, is still
lacking, the latter increase was a rather manifest phenomenon during the
eighteenth century. Research focused on the role played by maize in peas-
ant self-consumption (Visceglia 1991) should be deepened too, so as to in-
clude, for instance, the use of waste in the production of mattresses and
fuel, which became more common in popular houses. These themes should
in fact find their place within the articulate debate devoted to the gradual
improvements in the rural classes’ health and quality of life, which repre-
sented a fundamental prerequisite of the demographic acceleration of the
eighteenth century (Livi Bacci 1987).
On the basis of a rich bibliography, which allows us to compose a sol-
id historiographic framework, this work aims at moving from a general ap-
proach towards a more regional one, focused on companies’ behaviour. The
case study of Umbria, a region located in the centre of the Italian Peninsula,
offers the possibility to verify the general theories. The chronological frame
selected for this investigation ranges from the early eighteenth century,
when maize – called mais, granoturco or formentone in Italian – began to
regularly appear in the region (Franconie 1997; Messedaglia 1927), to 1861,
the year the Italian Kingdom was founded. This research, embracing al-
most a century and a half, aims at better defining the time frame of the
spreading of maize in Umbria; from its first appearance to its systemat-
ic presence among the cereals traded in the regional markets and grown
on local farms. Available data from companies’ and markets’ accounting
books (from Assisi, Gubbio, Perugia and Orvieto) provide us with informa-
tion not only relevant for understanding the regional features, but also for
elaborating long-term interpretations.
Other than determining the phenomenon’s time frame, the goal of
this study is to elaborate tables regarding trends in maize prices by compos-
ing a single regional picture through the aggregation of data derived from
different sources. A comparison of maize prices from different markets
and different companies allows us to identify potential strong differences
among them or rather a general convergence tendency. As is well known,
research aimed at identifying divergences or convergences in the Ancien
Régime markets (Epstein 2002) usually refers to wheat prices, for obvious
reasons. Without overlooking the relevance of wheat in the preindustrial
society, this case study refers to maize prices in order to achieve two main
goals: firstly, to ascertain whether trends in maize prices are diverging or
converging depending on the examined commercial areas and, secondly, to
49
crease in maize crops and the increase in livestock, especially bovine, is still
lacking, the latter increase was a rather manifest phenomenon during the
eighteenth century. Research focused on the role played by maize in peas-
ant self-consumption (Visceglia 1991) should be deepened too, so as to in-
clude, for instance, the use of waste in the production of mattresses and
fuel, which became more common in popular houses. These themes should
in fact find their place within the articulate debate devoted to the gradual
improvements in the rural classes’ health and quality of life, which repre-
sented a fundamental prerequisite of the demographic acceleration of the
eighteenth century (Livi Bacci 1987).
On the basis of a rich bibliography, which allows us to compose a sol-
id historiographic framework, this work aims at moving from a general ap-
proach towards a more regional one, focused on companies’ behaviour. The
case study of Umbria, a region located in the centre of the Italian Peninsula,
offers the possibility to verify the general theories. The chronological frame
selected for this investigation ranges from the early eighteenth century,
when maize – called mais, granoturco or formentone in Italian – began to
regularly appear in the region (Franconie 1997; Messedaglia 1927), to 1861,
the year the Italian Kingdom was founded. This research, embracing al-
most a century and a half, aims at better defining the time frame of the
spreading of maize in Umbria; from its first appearance to its systemat-
ic presence among the cereals traded in the regional markets and grown
on local farms. Available data from companies’ and markets’ accounting
books (from Assisi, Gubbio, Perugia and Orvieto) provide us with informa-
tion not only relevant for understanding the regional features, but also for
elaborating long-term interpretations.
Other than determining the phenomenon’s time frame, the goal of
this study is to elaborate tables regarding trends in maize prices by compos-
ing a single regional picture through the aggregation of data derived from
different sources. A comparison of maize prices from different markets
and different companies allows us to identify potential strong differences
among them or rather a general convergence tendency. As is well known,
research aimed at identifying divergences or convergences in the Ancien
Régime markets (Epstein 2002) usually refers to wheat prices, for obvious
reasons. Without overlooking the relevance of wheat in the preindustrial
society, this case study refers to maize prices in order to achieve two main
goals: firstly, to ascertain whether trends in maize prices are diverging or
converging depending on the examined commercial areas and, secondly, to
49
