Page 99 - 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. 99
innovations in agr icultur e and population growth in fr iuli ...
area but at least in part inland Istria, too, especially as far as maize is con-
cerned. “The daily diet is mostly polenta, and since the wine is sold at low-
er prices, it is the refreshing drink of the poor countryman. The inhabit-
ants of the coast do not lack good fish, among which tuna fish (Tonina) is
common, but the sardines (Sardellen) surpass all others” (Hacquet 1801, 42).
For the other areas of western and southern Slovenia (Notranjska,
Dolenjska and Bela Krajina) we must rely on the indications mentioned in
the previous paragraph, registering the presence of maize both as a crop
and as a foodstuff by the mid-eighteenth century and afterwards. On the
other hand, the diffusion of maize in the rest of Carniola was still in its be-
ginnings or not even that. In the Alpine area of north-western Carniola,
Gorenjska, “due to the lack of more resistant maize species, the new plant
was not established until the second half of the eighteenth century […];
only then did it begin to take root in larger amounts” (Britovšek 1964, 211).
This situation echoes that of the nearby Carinthia, situated to the north, al-
though there maize was known early and seems to have spread a bit faster.4
“From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, maize spread along the Drava
River into Lower Carinthia and the lateral Alpine valleys; therefore, the
prevalence of maize in Carinthia cannot be discussed until the end of the
eighteenth century (Sandgruber 1982, 46).
In the rest of Carniola, we find no trace of maize whatsoever. It seems
a telltale sign that even the administration of the large quicksilver mine in
Idrija, where a relevant concentration of wage workers lived, which used to
buy the grain supplies for its miners from the provincial estates of Carniola,
was not provided with any maize at least until 1780 (Valenčič 1977, 36-8).
Since those provisions came from the Carniolan landlords’ granaries, this
can only mean there was no relevant maize production. In the tables of ce-
real prices in the capital of Ljubljana, maize appears for the first time as late
as in 1795 (Valenčič 1977, 88, 157-160). As a final piece of evidence, when de-
scribing nutrition in Carniola in the last decades of the eighteenth centu-
ry, Hacquet does not mention maize (nor potato), but only buckwheat, rye,
sauerkraut and turnip (Hacquet 1801, 20-21).
As Vlado Valenčič, the author of the most complete history on grain
trade in Carniola and of other works on Slovenian agricultural history, put
it shortly, maize in Carniola “until the end of the eighteenth century did
not spread to a larger extent. Relatively more maize was sown in Styria”
(Valenčič 1970, 259). Yet again, mostly Austrian scholars provide informa-
4 Carinthia is the topic of another article in this book by Werner Drobesch.
97
area but at least in part inland Istria, too, especially as far as maize is con-
cerned. “The daily diet is mostly polenta, and since the wine is sold at low-
er prices, it is the refreshing drink of the poor countryman. The inhabit-
ants of the coast do not lack good fish, among which tuna fish (Tonina) is
common, but the sardines (Sardellen) surpass all others” (Hacquet 1801, 42).
For the other areas of western and southern Slovenia (Notranjska,
Dolenjska and Bela Krajina) we must rely on the indications mentioned in
the previous paragraph, registering the presence of maize both as a crop
and as a foodstuff by the mid-eighteenth century and afterwards. On the
other hand, the diffusion of maize in the rest of Carniola was still in its be-
ginnings or not even that. In the Alpine area of north-western Carniola,
Gorenjska, “due to the lack of more resistant maize species, the new plant
was not established until the second half of the eighteenth century […];
only then did it begin to take root in larger amounts” (Britovšek 1964, 211).
This situation echoes that of the nearby Carinthia, situated to the north, al-
though there maize was known early and seems to have spread a bit faster.4
“From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, maize spread along the Drava
River into Lower Carinthia and the lateral Alpine valleys; therefore, the
prevalence of maize in Carinthia cannot be discussed until the end of the
eighteenth century (Sandgruber 1982, 46).
In the rest of Carniola, we find no trace of maize whatsoever. It seems
a telltale sign that even the administration of the large quicksilver mine in
Idrija, where a relevant concentration of wage workers lived, which used to
buy the grain supplies for its miners from the provincial estates of Carniola,
was not provided with any maize at least until 1780 (Valenčič 1977, 36-8).
Since those provisions came from the Carniolan landlords’ granaries, this
can only mean there was no relevant maize production. In the tables of ce-
real prices in the capital of Ljubljana, maize appears for the first time as late
as in 1795 (Valenčič 1977, 88, 157-160). As a final piece of evidence, when de-
scribing nutrition in Carniola in the last decades of the eighteenth centu-
ry, Hacquet does not mention maize (nor potato), but only buckwheat, rye,
sauerkraut and turnip (Hacquet 1801, 20-21).
As Vlado Valenčič, the author of the most complete history on grain
trade in Carniola and of other works on Slovenian agricultural history, put
it shortly, maize in Carniola “until the end of the eighteenth century did
not spread to a larger extent. Relatively more maize was sown in Styria”
(Valenčič 1970, 259). Yet again, mostly Austrian scholars provide informa-
4 Carinthia is the topic of another article in this book by Werner Drobesch.
97
