Page 58 - 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. 58
maize to the people!
city markets: the first phase (1730-1764) marked by steady and low prices;
the second phase marked by a price growth between 1765 and 1768; the third
phase marked by a new stability lasting until the second half of the 1770s
and, lastly, the fourth phase of a new increase between 1776 and 1778, which
stopped with the end of the century due to the invasion of Jacobin armies.
Generally speaking, the increases in agricultural prices that occurred dur-
ing the second half of the eighteenth century favoured, for several reasons,
the expansion of production (Caracciolo 1973, 547-548). By examining the
cereal price fluctuations in the urban markets, it is possible to better un-
derstand the rationale for maize propagation in a region with Umbria’s fea-
tures, where soil and climate were not particularly suitable for this crop. In
fact, it is possible to assume that the increasing prices induced to replace
the traditional fallow fields with more useful crops, thus contributing to the
shaping of a binary agricultural structure (wheat/maize) which would last
until the great changes of the second half of the twentieth century.
Between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries, during the French military invasion, the available data regard-
ing Umbrian markets show a significant increase in the price of maize. In
Assisi, the average price of a staio between 1798 and 1817 was about 11.35
scudi, though it reached the value of 14 scudi in 1800-1801 and in 1807, and
even of 16 scudi in 1802 (Graph 2). By comparing this trend with those of
a few decades earlier, an increase of well above 127% can be registered. A
mild slowdown took place only between 1808 and 1811, when the staio price
fell to 6.80 scudi. However, even after 1818, notwithstanding a significant
fall in prices, the average maize value remained double compared with the
mid-eighteenth-century trend. In the nearby Tuscan city of Castiglione
Fiorentino similar trends can be observed. Between 1794 and 1801, the price
of a staio of maize was steadily around 6.6 libre4, with a 64% increase from
the 4.05 libre of the previous years. Similarities between these trends and
those in Assisi allow us to speak about a contraction in 1801 followed by a
substantial increase between 1810 and 1816, when a staio of maize reached
the value of 6 libre. In 1817 a long phase of low prices began, thus determin-
ing a new trend which lasted until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
The only exception is the 1853-1856 interval, when the price of a staio of
maize reverted to 9-11 libre.
During the nineteenth century, similar trends can be observed in the
Cortona, Orvieto and Sarteano markets. The phase of increasing prices
4 Coin of the Papal States.
56
city markets: the first phase (1730-1764) marked by steady and low prices;
the second phase marked by a price growth between 1765 and 1768; the third
phase marked by a new stability lasting until the second half of the 1770s
and, lastly, the fourth phase of a new increase between 1776 and 1778, which
stopped with the end of the century due to the invasion of Jacobin armies.
Generally speaking, the increases in agricultural prices that occurred dur-
ing the second half of the eighteenth century favoured, for several reasons,
the expansion of production (Caracciolo 1973, 547-548). By examining the
cereal price fluctuations in the urban markets, it is possible to better un-
derstand the rationale for maize propagation in a region with Umbria’s fea-
tures, where soil and climate were not particularly suitable for this crop. In
fact, it is possible to assume that the increasing prices induced to replace
the traditional fallow fields with more useful crops, thus contributing to the
shaping of a binary agricultural structure (wheat/maize) which would last
until the great changes of the second half of the twentieth century.
Between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth
centuries, during the French military invasion, the available data regard-
ing Umbrian markets show a significant increase in the price of maize. In
Assisi, the average price of a staio between 1798 and 1817 was about 11.35
scudi, though it reached the value of 14 scudi in 1800-1801 and in 1807, and
even of 16 scudi in 1802 (Graph 2). By comparing this trend with those of
a few decades earlier, an increase of well above 127% can be registered. A
mild slowdown took place only between 1808 and 1811, when the staio price
fell to 6.80 scudi. However, even after 1818, notwithstanding a significant
fall in prices, the average maize value remained double compared with the
mid-eighteenth-century trend. In the nearby Tuscan city of Castiglione
Fiorentino similar trends can be observed. Between 1794 and 1801, the price
of a staio of maize was steadily around 6.6 libre4, with a 64% increase from
the 4.05 libre of the previous years. Similarities between these trends and
those in Assisi allow us to speak about a contraction in 1801 followed by a
substantial increase between 1810 and 1816, when a staio of maize reached
the value of 6 libre. In 1817 a long phase of low prices began, thus determin-
ing a new trend which lasted until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
The only exception is the 1853-1856 interval, when the price of a staio of
maize reverted to 9-11 libre.
During the nineteenth century, similar trends can be observed in the
Cortona, Orvieto and Sarteano markets. The phase of increasing prices
4 Coin of the Papal States.
56
