Page 72 - 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. 72
maize to the people!
limits of land-carrying capacity. After a certain period, the pressure of the
population on resources begins to make its effects felt again and, depend-
ing on the demographic behaviour adopted, a new, often unstable, balance
is restored.
This paper proposes, within the framework outlined by Malthus, an
empirical verification of population growth, determined by the increase in
the carrying capacity of a territory. The paper explores this topic with ref-
erence to Friuli (north-eastern Italy) during the seventeenth century when
maize cultivation began to spread.
The links between the spread of new crops and population dynamics
have already been explored in the literature. It has, in fact, often been noted
that where new crops can guarantee an increase in production, they stim-
ulate population growth (Crosby 1972). Although this process has become
common knowledge, there is little evidence of the causal relationship be-
tween the two factors.
Perhaps the most discussed example is potatoes and population
growth in Ireland. The first studies date to the middle of the last century
(Salaman 1949; Connell 1950). Malthusian assumptions about the relation-
ship between these two elements have been critically reviewed, particularly
in later works, but the pattern whereby the potato fuelled Irish population
growth in the second half of the eighteenth century has been confirmed
(Mokyr 1981). Recently, with reference to the whole of Europe, it has been
estimated that the introduction of the potato increased the population of
the continent by some 25% (Nunn and Qian 2011). There are also studies in
this direction with regard to maize, though the diffusion of this cereal has
been given an economic rather than a demographic reading. However, re-
cently Chen and Kung (2016) studied the effect of the introduction of maize
in China from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. They estimated a
population increase of 19% between 1776 and 1910.
In Italy this topic was addressed by Giovanni Levi (1991). According
to this author, “Technological evolution, particularly in agriculture, has
not led, over the course of the three centuries from the sixteenth century
to the end of the eighteenth century, to decisive turns of immediate effec-
tiveness such as to allow production and the population to grow in a last-
ing and consistent manner. Only one innovation has had a truly revolu-
tionary character: the spread of maize” (Levi 1991, 141). According to Levi,
the introduction of maize allowed both a population increase and econom-
ic growth. However, the difficulty in identifying causal relationships has
70
limits of land-carrying capacity. After a certain period, the pressure of the
population on resources begins to make its effects felt again and, depend-
ing on the demographic behaviour adopted, a new, often unstable, balance
is restored.
This paper proposes, within the framework outlined by Malthus, an
empirical verification of population growth, determined by the increase in
the carrying capacity of a territory. The paper explores this topic with ref-
erence to Friuli (north-eastern Italy) during the seventeenth century when
maize cultivation began to spread.
The links between the spread of new crops and population dynamics
have already been explored in the literature. It has, in fact, often been noted
that where new crops can guarantee an increase in production, they stim-
ulate population growth (Crosby 1972). Although this process has become
common knowledge, there is little evidence of the causal relationship be-
tween the two factors.
Perhaps the most discussed example is potatoes and population
growth in Ireland. The first studies date to the middle of the last century
(Salaman 1949; Connell 1950). Malthusian assumptions about the relation-
ship between these two elements have been critically reviewed, particularly
in later works, but the pattern whereby the potato fuelled Irish population
growth in the second half of the eighteenth century has been confirmed
(Mokyr 1981). Recently, with reference to the whole of Europe, it has been
estimated that the introduction of the potato increased the population of
the continent by some 25% (Nunn and Qian 2011). There are also studies in
this direction with regard to maize, though the diffusion of this cereal has
been given an economic rather than a demographic reading. However, re-
cently Chen and Kung (2016) studied the effect of the introduction of maize
in China from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. They estimated a
population increase of 19% between 1776 and 1910.
In Italy this topic was addressed by Giovanni Levi (1991). According
to this author, “Technological evolution, particularly in agriculture, has
not led, over the course of the three centuries from the sixteenth century
to the end of the eighteenth century, to decisive turns of immediate effec-
tiveness such as to allow production and the population to grow in a last-
ing and consistent manner. Only one innovation has had a truly revolu-
tionary character: the spread of maize” (Levi 1991, 141). According to Levi,
the introduction of maize allowed both a population increase and econom-
ic growth. However, the difficulty in identifying causal relationships has
70
