Page 95 - 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. 95
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
bate inventories in the already known area southwest of Graz (Brunner
1994, 11-12).
Nevertheless, interpretations by Austrian historians are somewhat
contradictory or at least cautious. On the one hand, we may read that maize
was generally cultivated and appreciated as food, but that it was still not the
main crop (Brunner 1994, 11-12). On the other hand, basing on accounting
books, it is not possible to demonstrate that maize was cultivated in larg-
er amounts before the beginning of the eighteenth century anywhere in
Austrian Styria (Sandgruber 1982, 47).
The first half of the eighteenth century:
a seemingly sudden booming
Our review now returns to the western regions and starts from there to-
wards the east. After the lacking or at least loose historians’ statements re-
garding the presence of maize in the western Slovenian areas in the first
and second half of the seventeenth century (except for Carinthia), in the
following century it seems to suddenly become rather widespread in some
areas, especially by the Adriatic coast. Around Trieste, for example, “al-
ready in the first half of the eighteenth century, maize was in first place
among all the crops” (Britovšek 1964, 210). In nearby Istria, we find it es-
pecially in the area around the coastal town of Koper and, more generally
speaking, in the wetlands of northern Istria (Ivetic 1999, 81), i.e. in today’s
Slovenian territory and very close to Trieste. Quite the same may be said
about the other side of the Istrian Peninsula. In the surroundings of Rijeka
in the first half of the century, where maize “very quickly” gained first place
among the crops, as is shown for example by the peasants of St Augustin’s
monastery, who sowed mostly maize and made it their everyday food by the
mid-eighteenth century. “Quite a lot” of maize was to be found in some ar-
eas of inland Istria, too, such as the lands belonging to the monastery of St
Peter in the Woods and the Pičen Diocese. At the same time, in the nearby
Brkini area, the peasants of the Podgrad manor were cultivating as much
maize as wheat (Britovšek 1964, 210).
Surprisingly, somehow, we have no explicit and documented proof of
maize cultivation or consumption in the westernmost County of Gorizia,
apart from a few generic mentions regarding the entire seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries already cited above (Rutar 1882, 150; Gestrin 1969a,
3). On the contrary, it is possible to report a few mentions of maize in the
south-western part of Carniola, that is in Notranjska, located east of the
93
bate inventories in the already known area southwest of Graz (Brunner
1994, 11-12).
Nevertheless, interpretations by Austrian historians are somewhat
contradictory or at least cautious. On the one hand, we may read that maize
was generally cultivated and appreciated as food, but that it was still not the
main crop (Brunner 1994, 11-12). On the other hand, basing on accounting
books, it is not possible to demonstrate that maize was cultivated in larg-
er amounts before the beginning of the eighteenth century anywhere in
Austrian Styria (Sandgruber 1982, 47).
The first half of the eighteenth century:
a seemingly sudden booming
Our review now returns to the western regions and starts from there to-
wards the east. After the lacking or at least loose historians’ statements re-
garding the presence of maize in the western Slovenian areas in the first
and second half of the seventeenth century (except for Carinthia), in the
following century it seems to suddenly become rather widespread in some
areas, especially by the Adriatic coast. Around Trieste, for example, “al-
ready in the first half of the eighteenth century, maize was in first place
among all the crops” (Britovšek 1964, 210). In nearby Istria, we find it es-
pecially in the area around the coastal town of Koper and, more generally
speaking, in the wetlands of northern Istria (Ivetic 1999, 81), i.e. in today’s
Slovenian territory and very close to Trieste. Quite the same may be said
about the other side of the Istrian Peninsula. In the surroundings of Rijeka
in the first half of the century, where maize “very quickly” gained first place
among the crops, as is shown for example by the peasants of St Augustin’s
monastery, who sowed mostly maize and made it their everyday food by the
mid-eighteenth century. “Quite a lot” of maize was to be found in some ar-
eas of inland Istria, too, such as the lands belonging to the monastery of St
Peter in the Woods and the Pičen Diocese. At the same time, in the nearby
Brkini area, the peasants of the Podgrad manor were cultivating as much
maize as wheat (Britovšek 1964, 210).
Surprisingly, somehow, we have no explicit and documented proof of
maize cultivation or consumption in the westernmost County of Gorizia,
apart from a few generic mentions regarding the entire seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries already cited above (Rutar 1882, 150; Gestrin 1969a,
3). On the contrary, it is possible to report a few mentions of maize in the
south-western part of Carniola, that is in Notranjska, located east of the
93
