SC - Corn-Early Modern

[Decker, Terry D.]

The 1539 date for Bock (although the quote is from the 1570 edition) and
1543 for Fuchs are very interesting.  They both describe the use of maize in
bread, which suggests early adoption of the grain (no more than 16 years if
we accept Fuchs as the base) after being brought to Spain by Cortez.

Fuch's statement ties maize to Turkey.  If that statement is correct and if
maize was introduced to Turkey via the Venetian trade, as has been
suggested, then you are looking at approximately a nine year window for the
grain to arrive in Turkey and become an export to central Europe.  The
logical pattern for this trade would be corn from the Genoese colonies in
Spain to Genoa into the trade with Venice and from Venice to Turkey before
the hostilities of 1537 (Corfu) and the formal declaration of war in 1538.

Given the connections between the Augsburg bankers, Spain, Portugal and
Genoa, I think maize may have been brought into the German States via the
spice trade between Augsburg and Portugal.  As to why it was thought to be
from Turkey, a visit to a Diffusionist web site turned up the following
(I've edited it slightly).

QUOTE
Newsgroups:
soc.history.medieval,sci.archaeology,alt.archaeology,sci.bio.misc
,sci.anthropology,soc.culture.indian

Miguel Carrasquer Vidal ([22]mcv at pi.net) wrote:

: Grano turco for "maize" fits in with the Catalan names for the cereal,
: "blat de moro" (Moorish wheat), the usual term in Barcelona, Girona
: and Lleida, "moresc" (Moorish [wheat]) in Tarragona,
: "blat de les
: Indies" (wheat from the Indies) in Valencia and the Balears, "blat
: d'India, blat-indi" (wheat from India) in Rossello.  Compare "gall
: d'India, gall dindi" for "turkey".  And English "turkey" itself.
:
: Before 1492, the term "(blat) moresc" seems to have been used to
: denote a very different kind of cereal, probably buckwheat ("trigo
: morisco" or "trigo sarraceno" in Castillian).
ENDQUOTE

If there was this much linguistic confusion in Spain about the origin of the
grain, then it very likely was transferred to other countries as the grain
spread.

Should you want to take a look at Yuri's Diffusionist arguments about
Pre-Columbian Asiatic maize, try:

http://www.trends.ca/~yuku/tran/tmz.htm

For some connections to the history of maize in Mexico and general
information about the cereal, try the Iowa State Maize Page:

http://www.ag.iastate.edu/departments/agronomy/general.html

Bear