Page 89 - 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. 89
cing maize in the Slovenian regions,
sixteenth–eighteenth century.
An interpretive historiographical essay
Aleksander Panjek
University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities
Introduction
The aim of this article is to outline the state of the art in the field of research
on maize diffusion in the Slovenian regions, from its earliest appearance
until the end of the eighteenth century. In doing so, it concentrates on a
period about which our knowledge is not satisfactory yet, due to a lack of
in-depth and specifically focused research, but also due to scattered and
mostly incidental mentions in the primary sources. With the first decades
of the nineteenth century, the situation becomes much clearer, since we
may rely on the systematic mentions contained in the Austrian Franciscean
Cadastre (1819-1830), but at the same time it is already mature, in the sense
that maize is quite well known and widespread.
The real breakthrough in the spread of both new plants [maize and
potato] came after three consecutive poor harvests in 1815-17. At
that time, potatoes were fully established in Carniola; maize was
widely spread in Carinthia and in the Province of Gorizia, while in
Styria both cultures were. It was only after these changes in the cul-
tivation of potatoes and maize that the catastrophic famine disap-
peared, which had often affected the population in the Slovenian
lands (Gestrin 1969b, 66).
Our interest is to reconstruct the times and the ways by which such re-
sults had been reached. In the attempt to fulfil our goal, we will base on ex-
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-6963-09-1.87-111 87
sixteenth–eighteenth century.
An interpretive historiographical essay
Aleksander Panjek
University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities
Introduction
The aim of this article is to outline the state of the art in the field of research
on maize diffusion in the Slovenian regions, from its earliest appearance
until the end of the eighteenth century. In doing so, it concentrates on a
period about which our knowledge is not satisfactory yet, due to a lack of
in-depth and specifically focused research, but also due to scattered and
mostly incidental mentions in the primary sources. With the first decades
of the nineteenth century, the situation becomes much clearer, since we
may rely on the systematic mentions contained in the Austrian Franciscean
Cadastre (1819-1830), but at the same time it is already mature, in the sense
that maize is quite well known and widespread.
The real breakthrough in the spread of both new plants [maize and
potato] came after three consecutive poor harvests in 1815-17. At
that time, potatoes were fully established in Carniola; maize was
widely spread in Carinthia and in the Province of Gorizia, while in
Styria both cultures were. It was only after these changes in the cul-
tivation of potatoes and maize that the catastrophic famine disap-
peared, which had often affected the population in the Slovenian
lands (Gestrin 1969b, 66).
Our interest is to reconstruct the times and the ways by which such re-
sults had been reached. In the attempt to fulfil our goal, we will base on ex-
doi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-6963-09-1.87-111 87
