Page 59 - 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. 59
maize in umbr ia (centr al italy)
Graph 5. Wheat and maize market prices in Perugia, 1823-1862 (in Scudi per rubbio)
Source: ASPG, Antonini, series 7, no. 5.
which marked the period between the end of the eighteenth century and
1817, with a temporary contraction between 1804 and 1810, was followed
by decades of stable and low prices, with the exception of short periods of
price recovery (1828-29, 1838-39, 1853-54). It is important, at this stage of the
research, to point out the strong chronological synchrony exhibited by the
different markets examined, which were located on both sides of the border
between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the State of the Church (Biagioli
2000, 523). In fact, this means that, though belonging to two different po-
litical institutions, these markets shared a common price trend due to the
sharing of a common commercial network, thus contributing to the shap-
ing of a single and integrated economic space (Persson 1999).
Another important issue to address concerns the interaction among
prices of different cereals. Our first study case in Umbria is the city of
Orvieto (Graph 3), where the price trend of different cereals on the city mar-
ket (wheat, Sicily wheat and maize) can be traced from the beginning of the
nineteenth century until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Looking
at this trend, it is possible to notice that increases and contractions in the
prices of different cereals follow a similar pattern during the first half of
the nineteenth century, thus confirming the emergence of a single market
despite the adoption of different cereal policies on the part of the pre-uni-
tary Italian States (Pescosolido 2007). A synchronized pattern also marked
57
Graph 5. Wheat and maize market prices in Perugia, 1823-1862 (in Scudi per rubbio)
Source: ASPG, Antonini, series 7, no. 5.
which marked the period between the end of the eighteenth century and
1817, with a temporary contraction between 1804 and 1810, was followed
by decades of stable and low prices, with the exception of short periods of
price recovery (1828-29, 1838-39, 1853-54). It is important, at this stage of the
research, to point out the strong chronological synchrony exhibited by the
different markets examined, which were located on both sides of the border
between the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and the State of the Church (Biagioli
2000, 523). In fact, this means that, though belonging to two different po-
litical institutions, these markets shared a common price trend due to the
sharing of a common commercial network, thus contributing to the shap-
ing of a single and integrated economic space (Persson 1999).
Another important issue to address concerns the interaction among
prices of different cereals. Our first study case in Umbria is the city of
Orvieto (Graph 3), where the price trend of different cereals on the city mar-
ket (wheat, Sicily wheat and maize) can be traced from the beginning of the
nineteenth century until the birth of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. Looking
at this trend, it is possible to notice that increases and contractions in the
prices of different cereals follow a similar pattern during the first half of
the nineteenth century, thus confirming the emergence of a single market
despite the adoption of different cereal policies on the part of the pre-uni-
tary Italian States (Pescosolido 2007). A synchronized pattern also marked
57
