Page 75 - 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. 75
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
hindered the consumption of maize among rural populations (Levi 1979).
There was also the fact that, at least according to Roberto Finzi (2009), it
provided little energy, and after consuming it the satiety effect was short
lived. In any case, these reserves were eventually overcome when maize
presented itself as an alternative to hunger. As illustrated by Giovanni Levi,
in relation to northern Italy, it became an important part of the peasant diet
only after the great plague of 1630. But there is evidence that already during
the crises of the second half of the sixteenth century it substituted the tra-
ditional food of the peasants (Cazzola 1991).
In Friuli, as in other areas of northern Italy, there was initial resist-
ance to its consumption. Then, from the famine of 1629 onward, maize,
in the form of polenta, began to spread on the peasants’ tables, until it be-
came, in the late nineteenth century, the dominant, and in many cases ex-
clusive, food of a large part of the population (Fornasin 1999; Bof 2005).
This spread had, as we know, significant consequences, not least in terms of
health. Maize is heavily vitamin deficient, as it is low in niacin. Therefore, a
diet based exclusively or almost exclusively on this cereal could lead to pel-
lagra. This disease, though, is only observed frequently in Friuli and north-
ern Italy during the nineteenth century, and therefore far from the peri-
od we are dealing with, when the diet of the rural poor was evidently more
varied (De Bernardi 1984; Livi Bacci 1986; Robiony 2003).
Despite initial difficulties, maize eventually became an important part
of the diet. The new cereal was not only an efficient way to overcome cri-
ses. It was also the most advantageous crop, at least from the point of view
of the grower/consumer, compared to the traditional spring cereals com-
mon in Friuli, such as red sorghum, buckwheat and millet. Although its nu-
tritional value is close to other cereals that were cultivated in Friuli at the
time5, maize enjoyed other advantages over competing crops, in particu-
lar in terms of the yield ratio per unit area of land, and of the seed/crop ra-
tio. Renzo Corritore estimated that, at the end of the eighteenth century, in
some areas of the Po Valley the quintals/hectare ratio was 7.6 for maize, 5.1
for wheat, or 3.3 for other crops. The seed/crop ratio was 36.5 for maize, 4.1
5 In the tables of CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’econo-
mia agraria) we see that there are no significant differences between cereals. They
range from 1376 kJ of buckwheat to 1492 kJ of maize (red sorghum is not includ-
ed in this database). Website: https://www.crea.gov.it/web/alimenti-e-nutrizione, ac-
cessed on 10 February 2020. Of course, varieties grown in the past could have given
different results. For example, according to Malanima (1998, 163), the energy yield of
wheat equalled 100, while that of maize equalled 162.
73
hindered the consumption of maize among rural populations (Levi 1979).
There was also the fact that, at least according to Roberto Finzi (2009), it
provided little energy, and after consuming it the satiety effect was short
lived. In any case, these reserves were eventually overcome when maize
presented itself as an alternative to hunger. As illustrated by Giovanni Levi,
in relation to northern Italy, it became an important part of the peasant diet
only after the great plague of 1630. But there is evidence that already during
the crises of the second half of the sixteenth century it substituted the tra-
ditional food of the peasants (Cazzola 1991).
In Friuli, as in other areas of northern Italy, there was initial resist-
ance to its consumption. Then, from the famine of 1629 onward, maize,
in the form of polenta, began to spread on the peasants’ tables, until it be-
came, in the late nineteenth century, the dominant, and in many cases ex-
clusive, food of a large part of the population (Fornasin 1999; Bof 2005).
This spread had, as we know, significant consequences, not least in terms of
health. Maize is heavily vitamin deficient, as it is low in niacin. Therefore, a
diet based exclusively or almost exclusively on this cereal could lead to pel-
lagra. This disease, though, is only observed frequently in Friuli and north-
ern Italy during the nineteenth century, and therefore far from the peri-
od we are dealing with, when the diet of the rural poor was evidently more
varied (De Bernardi 1984; Livi Bacci 1986; Robiony 2003).
Despite initial difficulties, maize eventually became an important part
of the diet. The new cereal was not only an efficient way to overcome cri-
ses. It was also the most advantageous crop, at least from the point of view
of the grower/consumer, compared to the traditional spring cereals com-
mon in Friuli, such as red sorghum, buckwheat and millet. Although its nu-
tritional value is close to other cereals that were cultivated in Friuli at the
time5, maize enjoyed other advantages over competing crops, in particu-
lar in terms of the yield ratio per unit area of land, and of the seed/crop ra-
tio. Renzo Corritore estimated that, at the end of the eighteenth century, in
some areas of the Po Valley the quintals/hectare ratio was 7.6 for maize, 5.1
for wheat, or 3.3 for other crops. The seed/crop ratio was 36.5 for maize, 4.1
5 In the tables of CREA (Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’econo-
mia agraria) we see that there are no significant differences between cereals. They
range from 1376 kJ of buckwheat to 1492 kJ of maize (red sorghum is not includ-
ed in this database). Website: https://www.crea.gov.it/web/alimenti-e-nutrizione, ac-
cessed on 10 February 2020. Of course, varieties grown in the past could have given
different results. For example, according to Malanima (1998, 163), the energy yield of
wheat equalled 100, while that of maize equalled 162.
73
