Page 64 - 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. 64
maize to the people!
tween 1824 and 1860, allowed it to obtain an average production of 610 rub-
bii5 of wheat, 346 of maize, and 290 of durum wheat per year.
Regardless of the differences among the single study cases, the ex-
istence of a cereal crop diversity demonstrates the emergence, from the
first decades of the nineteenth century onward, of an agricultural strate-
gy aimed at satisfying different demands, from the consumption of peasant
families and monasteries to supplying urban markets and the pasta indus-
try. This production segmentation, which derived from a growing diversi-
fication of demand, is confirmed by the price differences among cereals. In
the case of the company of the Perugia San Pietro monastery, for instance,
at the beginning of the nineteenth century a rubbio of maize was worth 5.1
scudi, a rubbio of wheat 7.7 scudi, and a rubbio of durum wheat 8.28 scudi,
thus demonstrating the existence of different commercial as well as con-
sumer circuits.
From a different point of view, large landowners’ accounting books
also allow a comparison between the cereal company prices and the ce-
real urban market prices. Regardless of the difficulties caused by the use
of different ancient currencies and units of measurement, it is possible to
compare the prices of the examined companies with the series of prices
from the Orvieto market for the years from 1824 to 1860. The result is sur-
prising: the price of a rubbio of maize turns out to be 5.1 scudi, the same
in both the beni adiacenti company of the Perugia San Pietro monastery
and the Orvieto market. We have therefore identified a uniform price
which demonstrates once again the existence of widespread market rela-
tions that induced a progressive integration of commercial spaces (Herranz
Loncan 2016) by overcoming the restrictions of the single local economies
(Malanima, 2009). Other clues point in this direction. Between 1825 and
1853, a rubbio of wheat on the lands of the Marquis Bourbon di Sorbello’s
company was worth 8 scudi, exactly as in the company of the San Pietro
monastery and in the Orvieto market. All these data confirm the shaping,
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, of an integrated economic
area for cereals. Wheat and maize crops, as mentioned above, were progres-
sively integrated and they gave life to a single commercial space.
Conclusions
The paper confirms the chronology of the spreading of maize on the Italian
Peninsula. Using the region of Umbria as a case study, it has been shown
5 Between 284 and 294 litres.
62
tween 1824 and 1860, allowed it to obtain an average production of 610 rub-
bii5 of wheat, 346 of maize, and 290 of durum wheat per year.
Regardless of the differences among the single study cases, the ex-
istence of a cereal crop diversity demonstrates the emergence, from the
first decades of the nineteenth century onward, of an agricultural strate-
gy aimed at satisfying different demands, from the consumption of peasant
families and monasteries to supplying urban markets and the pasta indus-
try. This production segmentation, which derived from a growing diversi-
fication of demand, is confirmed by the price differences among cereals. In
the case of the company of the Perugia San Pietro monastery, for instance,
at the beginning of the nineteenth century a rubbio of maize was worth 5.1
scudi, a rubbio of wheat 7.7 scudi, and a rubbio of durum wheat 8.28 scudi,
thus demonstrating the existence of different commercial as well as con-
sumer circuits.
From a different point of view, large landowners’ accounting books
also allow a comparison between the cereal company prices and the ce-
real urban market prices. Regardless of the difficulties caused by the use
of different ancient currencies and units of measurement, it is possible to
compare the prices of the examined companies with the series of prices
from the Orvieto market for the years from 1824 to 1860. The result is sur-
prising: the price of a rubbio of maize turns out to be 5.1 scudi, the same
in both the beni adiacenti company of the Perugia San Pietro monastery
and the Orvieto market. We have therefore identified a uniform price
which demonstrates once again the existence of widespread market rela-
tions that induced a progressive integration of commercial spaces (Herranz
Loncan 2016) by overcoming the restrictions of the single local economies
(Malanima, 2009). Other clues point in this direction. Between 1825 and
1853, a rubbio of wheat on the lands of the Marquis Bourbon di Sorbello’s
company was worth 8 scudi, exactly as in the company of the San Pietro
monastery and in the Orvieto market. All these data confirm the shaping,
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, of an integrated economic
area for cereals. Wheat and maize crops, as mentioned above, were progres-
sively integrated and they gave life to a single commercial space.
Conclusions
The paper confirms the chronology of the spreading of maize on the Italian
Peninsula. Using the region of Umbria as a case study, it has been shown
5 Between 284 and 294 litres.
62
