Page 60 - 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. 60
maize to the people!
wheat and maize prices in the Perugia cereal market (Graph 5). Even in the
main Umbrian city it is indeed possible to identify, during the first half of
the nineteenth century, a prolonged phase of partial stability which start-
ed in the 1820s and ended in the early 1850s, when sudden surges in prices
took place between 1852 and 1853 and between 1856 and 1857. During its last
ruling years, the Church reimposed low prices especially for maize, while
wheat prices continued to be high, on the backdrop of an overall fluctuat-
ing trend which endured from 1857 to 1861.
In the market of Sarteano, a small town located between the State of
the Church and Tuscany, the price trends of the two main cereals appear
perfectly synchronized from 1780 to 1835, with parallel surges and down-
ward trends. Overall, five phases can be identified in the markets of the cit-
ies examined. The first phase of moderate prices lasting until 1792 was fol-
lowed by the second phase of a price increase between 1793 and 1803 (an
85% increase for wheat and a 152% increase for maize), the third phase of
a new downward trend until 1810, and by another remarkable increase be-
tween 1811 and 1817 (a 62% increase for wheat and 90% for maize). At the
end of the French invasion, prices decreased again until they reached the
same levels as in the 1780s. Alongside this synchronized trend of wheat and
maize prices, it is possible to observe that in the most critical periods (1793-
1803 and 1811-1817) there was a clear reduction in the value difference be-
tween the two cereals, due to a more sensitive increase in maize prices. In
fact, in the three phases of market calm (1780-92, 1804-10 and 1818-35), the
gap between wheat and maize prices reached 43-47%, while it dropped to
28-37% during the periods of greater instability (1793-1803 and 1811-1817). As
demonstrated by research carried out on both French (Labrousse 1932) and
Italian study cases (Malanima 1976; Gori 1989, 573), this was due to the fact
that, in a time of crisis, reduced food supplies tend to favour the most ex-
pensive cereals by neglecting the humbler ones. In consequence, in these
periods many peasants and small owners who would have been able to sat-
isfy their family food needs with their own production under normal con-
ditions, were forced to resort to the market, thus triggering a price increase
due to the growing gap between an increased demand and a reduced of-
fer. This twofold mechanism is clearly manifest in the case of maize which,
in times of famine, tended to disappear from urban markets and become
a rare and expensive commodity for the low classes, while coming back in
periods of a price decrease.
58
wheat and maize prices in the Perugia cereal market (Graph 5). Even in the
main Umbrian city it is indeed possible to identify, during the first half of
the nineteenth century, a prolonged phase of partial stability which start-
ed in the 1820s and ended in the early 1850s, when sudden surges in prices
took place between 1852 and 1853 and between 1856 and 1857. During its last
ruling years, the Church reimposed low prices especially for maize, while
wheat prices continued to be high, on the backdrop of an overall fluctuat-
ing trend which endured from 1857 to 1861.
In the market of Sarteano, a small town located between the State of
the Church and Tuscany, the price trends of the two main cereals appear
perfectly synchronized from 1780 to 1835, with parallel surges and down-
ward trends. Overall, five phases can be identified in the markets of the cit-
ies examined. The first phase of moderate prices lasting until 1792 was fol-
lowed by the second phase of a price increase between 1793 and 1803 (an
85% increase for wheat and a 152% increase for maize), the third phase of
a new downward trend until 1810, and by another remarkable increase be-
tween 1811 and 1817 (a 62% increase for wheat and 90% for maize). At the
end of the French invasion, prices decreased again until they reached the
same levels as in the 1780s. Alongside this synchronized trend of wheat and
maize prices, it is possible to observe that in the most critical periods (1793-
1803 and 1811-1817) there was a clear reduction in the value difference be-
tween the two cereals, due to a more sensitive increase in maize prices. In
fact, in the three phases of market calm (1780-92, 1804-10 and 1818-35), the
gap between wheat and maize prices reached 43-47%, while it dropped to
28-37% during the periods of greater instability (1793-1803 and 1811-1817). As
demonstrated by research carried out on both French (Labrousse 1932) and
Italian study cases (Malanima 1976; Gori 1989, 573), this was due to the fact
that, in a time of crisis, reduced food supplies tend to favour the most ex-
pensive cereals by neglecting the humbler ones. In consequence, in these
periods many peasants and small owners who would have been able to sat-
isfy their family food needs with their own production under normal con-
ditions, were forced to resort to the market, thus triggering a price increase
due to the growing gap between an increased demand and a reduced of-
fer. This twofold mechanism is clearly manifest in the case of maize which,
in times of famine, tended to disappear from urban markets and become
a rare and expensive commodity for the low classes, while coming back in
periods of a price decrease.
58
