Page 61 - 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. 61
maize in umbr ia (centr al italy)
Maize cultivation on large agricultural estates
Having retraced the timeline of the spreading of maize in Umbria and ex-
amined its price trends, with special attention paid to the emergence of a
single commercial space marked by converging prices, we can now focus
on sources concerning farms’ activities in order to investigate, though in
the form of a primary survey, the role played by large landowners in deter-
mining the maize offer. To this end, it is possible to consider the data re-
garding some Umbrian farms’ activities throughout the nineteenth centu-
ry. Between 1816 and 1850 the Casalina company (Table 1) – the core of the
land property of the San Pietro Benedictine monastery in Perugia – pro-
duced about 2,960 staia of maize and wheat, with a clear predominance
of wheat which amounted to 63% of the company’s entire cereal harvest.
Obviously, over an almost 30-year period there were significant fluctua-
tions, during which maize moved from a minimum percentage of 14% in
1817 to a maximum of 63% in 1844. Between these two extremes, it average-
ly ranged from 37 to 44% of the cereal crops.
Table 1. Wheat and maize production in the Casalina company of the Perugia San Pietro
monastery, 1816-1861 (Staia).
Years Wheat Maize Total % of maize
in total amount
1816 2,113 808 2,921
1817 3,507 572 4,079 28
1818 2,515 1,019 3,534 14
1841 1,916 870 2,786 29
1842 2,135 1,593 3,728 31
1843 1,312 1,052 2,364 43
1844 1,312 1,052 1,656 44
1845 892 737 1,629 63
1846 854 475 1,329 45
1847 1,894 1,186 3,080 36
1848 1,392 823 2,215 38
1849 2,484 1,121 3,605 37
1850 2,850 1,650 4,505 31
1850 2,542 1,477 4,019 37
Median 1,966 994 2,960 37
37
Source: AMSPP, LE, 409 and 410.
59
Maize cultivation on large agricultural estates
Having retraced the timeline of the spreading of maize in Umbria and ex-
amined its price trends, with special attention paid to the emergence of a
single commercial space marked by converging prices, we can now focus
on sources concerning farms’ activities in order to investigate, though in
the form of a primary survey, the role played by large landowners in deter-
mining the maize offer. To this end, it is possible to consider the data re-
garding some Umbrian farms’ activities throughout the nineteenth centu-
ry. Between 1816 and 1850 the Casalina company (Table 1) – the core of the
land property of the San Pietro Benedictine monastery in Perugia – pro-
duced about 2,960 staia of maize and wheat, with a clear predominance
of wheat which amounted to 63% of the company’s entire cereal harvest.
Obviously, over an almost 30-year period there were significant fluctua-
tions, during which maize moved from a minimum percentage of 14% in
1817 to a maximum of 63% in 1844. Between these two extremes, it average-
ly ranged from 37 to 44% of the cereal crops.
Table 1. Wheat and maize production in the Casalina company of the Perugia San Pietro
monastery, 1816-1861 (Staia).
Years Wheat Maize Total % of maize
in total amount
1816 2,113 808 2,921
1817 3,507 572 4,079 28
1818 2,515 1,019 3,534 14
1841 1,916 870 2,786 29
1842 2,135 1,593 3,728 31
1843 1,312 1,052 2,364 43
1844 1,312 1,052 1,656 44
1845 892 737 1,629 63
1846 854 475 1,329 45
1847 1,894 1,186 3,080 36
1848 1,392 823 2,215 38
1849 2,484 1,121 3,605 37
1850 2,850 1,650 4,505 31
1850 2,542 1,477 4,019 37
Median 1,966 994 2,960 37
37
Source: AMSPP, LE, 409 and 410.
59
