Page 56 - 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. 56
maize to the people!
maize regularly appears on the list of crops only after 1816 (AMSPP, LE,
49). At present, it is therefore evident that in the early eighteenth century,
maize had arrived in Umbria almost concurrently in both city markets and
farms and afterwards continued to strengthen its presence until the first
half of the nineteenth century. It still remains to be clarified whether the
maize traded on Umbrian markets was actually cultivated on local farms
or was rather imported from other regions. Compared with the well-re-
searched subject of the wheat commercial circuits, however, maize market-
ing is much less known, as if it was exclusively meant for family consump-
tion (Galli 2016). Actually, alongside the self-consumption among peasant
families, the steady presence of maize in city markets induces to envision
the emergence of a diversified cereal trade during the early modern peri-
od, no longer dominated by wheat but by two cereals: wheat and maize.
Moreover, with the entry of maize into the markets a greater range of trade
options emerged with regard to demand and offer.
Although fresh research is needed in order to deepen this analysis, es-
pecially regarding the main actors of the maize trade, a plausible starting
point is the knowledge that maize was systematically cultivated in Umbria
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. From that moment on, farming
activities were based on a wheat/maize alternation which endured until the
mid-twentieth century (Desplanques 1969; Vaquero Piñeiro, Giommi 2017).
Moreover, though a direct connection between the spreading of maize and
population growth still needs to be proved, the strong population growth
registered in Umbria, lasting almost a century, should be seen as more than
a mere chance. Between 1802 and 1911, an 88% population increase was re-
corded (Bonelli 1967, 29). In order to understand such a positive trend, it is
necessary to consider both the physical and the psychological effects that
the greater availability of food produced on the lower classes. Despite its
poor nutritional properties, in fact, maize offered a precious alternative
to the constant danger of hunger and famine (Alfani 2010; Alfani and Ó
Gráda 2017). Obviously, the downside of the unbalanced maize consump-
tion was pellagra, though the link between this disease and maize did not
become commonly known until the nineteenth or even the early twentieth
century (De Bernardi 1984; Finzi 1982).
Maize prices in Umbria (1700-1861)
There is no need to remind you that trends in wheat prices have brought
about the elaboration of detailed series of prices and several theories about
54
maize regularly appears on the list of crops only after 1816 (AMSPP, LE,
49). At present, it is therefore evident that in the early eighteenth century,
maize had arrived in Umbria almost concurrently in both city markets and
farms and afterwards continued to strengthen its presence until the first
half of the nineteenth century. It still remains to be clarified whether the
maize traded on Umbrian markets was actually cultivated on local farms
or was rather imported from other regions. Compared with the well-re-
searched subject of the wheat commercial circuits, however, maize market-
ing is much less known, as if it was exclusively meant for family consump-
tion (Galli 2016). Actually, alongside the self-consumption among peasant
families, the steady presence of maize in city markets induces to envision
the emergence of a diversified cereal trade during the early modern peri-
od, no longer dominated by wheat but by two cereals: wheat and maize.
Moreover, with the entry of maize into the markets a greater range of trade
options emerged with regard to demand and offer.
Although fresh research is needed in order to deepen this analysis, es-
pecially regarding the main actors of the maize trade, a plausible starting
point is the knowledge that maize was systematically cultivated in Umbria
at the beginning of the nineteenth century. From that moment on, farming
activities were based on a wheat/maize alternation which endured until the
mid-twentieth century (Desplanques 1969; Vaquero Piñeiro, Giommi 2017).
Moreover, though a direct connection between the spreading of maize and
population growth still needs to be proved, the strong population growth
registered in Umbria, lasting almost a century, should be seen as more than
a mere chance. Between 1802 and 1911, an 88% population increase was re-
corded (Bonelli 1967, 29). In order to understand such a positive trend, it is
necessary to consider both the physical and the psychological effects that
the greater availability of food produced on the lower classes. Despite its
poor nutritional properties, in fact, maize offered a precious alternative
to the constant danger of hunger and famine (Alfani 2010; Alfani and Ó
Gráda 2017). Obviously, the downside of the unbalanced maize consump-
tion was pellagra, though the link between this disease and maize did not
become commonly known until the nineteenth or even the early twentieth
century (De Bernardi 1984; Finzi 1982).
Maize prices in Umbria (1700-1861)
There is no need to remind you that trends in wheat prices have brought
about the elaboration of detailed series of prices and several theories about
54
