Page 76 - 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. 76
maize to the people!
for wheat, and even lower for other crops (Corritore 2000, 41). The figures
presented by Paolo Malanima for eighteenth-century Lombardy are differ-
ent, but take us in the same direction: a hectare of land provided on average
about 7.7 q of wheat, and 12.9 q of maize (Malanima 1998, 163).
Context and sources
The territory studied in this paper is the Patria del Friuli, the eastern part
of the Venetian mainland. Friuli was economically backward compared to
most of the kingdom’s provinces. On the plains, the economy was based
on agriculture, while in the mountains there were lively economic activ-
ities based mainly on the itinerant trade and some craft activities, but in
the context of multi-activities (Morassi 1997; Bianco 1994; Fornasin and
Lorenzini 2017). Craft activities were concentrated in urban areas.
Graph 1. Population of Friuli (1566-1725)
From the demographic point of view, Friuli was a sparsely populat-
ed area compared to the rest of the mainland states (Zannini and Fornasin
1999). According to the most recent studies (Fornasin 2001; Fornasin and
Lorenzini 2016), there were about 225,000 inhabitants in the second half of
the sixteenth century (Graph 1). At the end of the century, the population
had decreased significantly. The causes of this decline are to be found in the
plague of 1575-76, and in other mortality crises at the end of the sixteenth
74
for wheat, and even lower for other crops (Corritore 2000, 41). The figures
presented by Paolo Malanima for eighteenth-century Lombardy are differ-
ent, but take us in the same direction: a hectare of land provided on average
about 7.7 q of wheat, and 12.9 q of maize (Malanima 1998, 163).
Context and sources
The territory studied in this paper is the Patria del Friuli, the eastern part
of the Venetian mainland. Friuli was economically backward compared to
most of the kingdom’s provinces. On the plains, the economy was based
on agriculture, while in the mountains there were lively economic activ-
ities based mainly on the itinerant trade and some craft activities, but in
the context of multi-activities (Morassi 1997; Bianco 1994; Fornasin and
Lorenzini 2017). Craft activities were concentrated in urban areas.
Graph 1. Population of Friuli (1566-1725)
From the demographic point of view, Friuli was a sparsely populat-
ed area compared to the rest of the mainland states (Zannini and Fornasin
1999). According to the most recent studies (Fornasin 2001; Fornasin and
Lorenzini 2016), there were about 225,000 inhabitants in the second half of
the sixteenth century (Graph 1). At the end of the century, the population
had decreased significantly. The causes of this decline are to be found in the
plague of 1575-76, and in other mortality crises at the end of the sixteenth
74
