Page 84 - 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. 84
maize to the people!
Unfortunately, the sources used in this work do not allow for a clari-
fication of these points. Both surveys report some overly approximate in-
formation on the structure of the population, which, in principle, could be
used to estimate fertility and mortality. The survey of 1656, though it al-
lows us to distinguish in many cases between adults and putti, is not de-
tailed enough to resolve the issue. The age limit between these two compo-
nents of the population is not fixed with precision and, much more serious
for any analysis, it differs from village to village depending on who carried
out the survey. An opportunity for further study is given by the collection
and processing of data, which we can draw from the records of baptisms
and burials kept in the parish archives. But precisely for this period, and
partly due to the serious upheavals caused by the famine, the parish regis-
ters are very patchy. The possibility of collecting information on migrato-
ry flows, the quantification of which depends on parish registers, remains
very problematic.
It is currently impossible, without information that allows a quanti-
tative analysis, to reconstruct the mechanisms that may have come into
action to trigger this growth. However, it seems to me that the same ex-
planation that has been used to justify the growth of the Irish popula-
tion after the introduction of the potato (Connell 1950) can be temporar-
ily adopted for Friuli. In fact, this hypothesis is consistent with the data
available and, also, with the results of the model. As we have seen, in the
communities where we have observed greater population growth, there is
also a greater increase in the average size of households. This effect may,
of course, be due to two very different factors: 1) the increase in fertili-
ty, which translates into a higher number of children within the family,
and therefore into an enlargement of the base of the population pyramid;
2) the increase in survival. In this case, since mortality was concentrated
mainly among babies, we should see the growth of younger family mem-
bers. On the other hand, infant mortality is not in direct correspondence
with the consumption of maize, which concerns, mainly, the ages follow-
ing weaning. If it is a consequence of increased survival, we should also
see, in the data, its effects on the adult and elderly population. We have
no other element to justify the growth of the population except a greater
availability of food, which occurs, among other things, when there is no
population pressure on the resources7. To reach a provisional conclusion,
7 Greater availability of food can also lead to an increase in mortality which can be bal-
anced by greater fertility (Livi-Bacci 2017).
82
Unfortunately, the sources used in this work do not allow for a clari-
fication of these points. Both surveys report some overly approximate in-
formation on the structure of the population, which, in principle, could be
used to estimate fertility and mortality. The survey of 1656, though it al-
lows us to distinguish in many cases between adults and putti, is not de-
tailed enough to resolve the issue. The age limit between these two compo-
nents of the population is not fixed with precision and, much more serious
for any analysis, it differs from village to village depending on who carried
out the survey. An opportunity for further study is given by the collection
and processing of data, which we can draw from the records of baptisms
and burials kept in the parish archives. But precisely for this period, and
partly due to the serious upheavals caused by the famine, the parish regis-
ters are very patchy. The possibility of collecting information on migrato-
ry flows, the quantification of which depends on parish registers, remains
very problematic.
It is currently impossible, without information that allows a quanti-
tative analysis, to reconstruct the mechanisms that may have come into
action to trigger this growth. However, it seems to me that the same ex-
planation that has been used to justify the growth of the Irish popula-
tion after the introduction of the potato (Connell 1950) can be temporar-
ily adopted for Friuli. In fact, this hypothesis is consistent with the data
available and, also, with the results of the model. As we have seen, in the
communities where we have observed greater population growth, there is
also a greater increase in the average size of households. This effect may,
of course, be due to two very different factors: 1) the increase in fertili-
ty, which translates into a higher number of children within the family,
and therefore into an enlargement of the base of the population pyramid;
2) the increase in survival. In this case, since mortality was concentrated
mainly among babies, we should see the growth of younger family mem-
bers. On the other hand, infant mortality is not in direct correspondence
with the consumption of maize, which concerns, mainly, the ages follow-
ing weaning. If it is a consequence of increased survival, we should also
see, in the data, its effects on the adult and elderly population. We have
no other element to justify the growth of the population except a greater
availability of food, which occurs, among other things, when there is no
population pressure on the resources7. To reach a provisional conclusion,
7 Greater availability of food can also lead to an increase in mortality which can be bal-
anced by greater fertility (Livi-Bacci 2017).
82
