Greece, the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule From the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence by David Brewer

Author:David Brewer [Brewer, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: History / Ancient
ISBN: 9781780762388
Google: ckl-twAACAAJ
Goodreads: 7940723
Publisher: I. B. Tauris
Published: 2010-05-10T23:00:00+00:00

15

Hunger and Disease

The main Ottoman taxation of agriculture fell on grain, a tax payable originally in kind but later increasingly in cash. But other factors too affected the price of grain: good or bad harvests, of course, as well as the demands of the army on campaign, and grain shortages elsewhere, as in Italy and Spain in the mid-sixteenth century, which pushed up the price of grain in the Ottoman Empire. Also grain was requisitioned from the provinces to feed the population of Constantinople. The quantities involved were enormous: in 1700 the capital needed 500 tons of wheat a day and the city’s bakers had to hold a three months’ supply. What grain was left for the provinces therefore became more expensive.

In statements by historians about grain crops, production levels and prices, it is not always clear what crop is meant. Wheat has throughout history been the most important grain in the Mediterranean, including Greece. It is the best for making bread because it is rich in gluten, and the higher the gluten content the lighter, the more porous and the more digestible the bread produced. Rye is more usual in northern Europe and is little found in Greece. Maize is common in Greece. It does not have enough gluten for bread making, but is rich in protein, and is often used for animal fodder. Barley, like maize, is common in Greece but cannot produce bread, and as a food source it is often added to soups or stews. Oats, a highly adaptable crop, are in Greece mainly used for animal feed. Greek grain production in 1975 gives an indication of the relative importance of different grain crops: wheat over half the total, barley a quarter, maize fourteen per cent, with small amounts of oats and rice making up the rest.

Kóstas Kostís, in his book on food crises in Greece during the Ottoman period, includes tables of wheat prices in the Balkans as a whole. These show much greater variation than the average wheat prices for Europe generally. European prices roughly doubled on a steadily rising curve between 1540 and their peak in the seventeenth century and then settled at a slightly lower level. By contrast the average Balkan wheat price was much more volatile. It multiplied around ten times between 1695 and 1725 and, having fallen back to its previous level, rose by a similar factor between 1780 and 1810. Average Balkan prices for all grain crops taken together varied even more. In 1710–14 it was fifteen times higher than its level only a few decades earlier, and in 1720–4 it was over 50 times that level, before again dropping back. Very often, and especially at these times of huge price fluctuation, Greeks of both town and country would have been in a continual state of uncertainty and anxiety about whether they could afford, or even obtain, their next meal.

Sometimes a link can be seen between prices and good or bad harvests. In the Thessalonika area there was a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.