Modern Capitalist Concepts of Agricultural Theory and Practices … First Risorgimento Origins – South of Rome 2nd Century B.C.
Modern Capitalist Concepts of Agricultural Theory and Practices … First Risorgimento Origins – South of Rome 2nd Century B.C.
(February 20, 2014)
The ancient history of Italy, South of Rome, may reasonably be divided into two periods: first from circa 750 B.C., with the arrival of the Greeks and Phoenicians, down to 201 B.C. with the expulsion of Hannibal. This period may be characterized as the semination/gestation period of the South of Rome political economy and culture. During that time there were many ethnic/national groups divided against and conflicting with each other. This first period was one of incessant civil warfare (e.g. Greeks against Greeks, Etruscans against themselves and the Samnites, Romans against everyone), and international war (e.g. Romans against Carthage and Celts). In the second period, beginning with the defeat of Hannibal in 201 B.C, Rome succeeded in unifying Peninsular Italy and Sicily – i.e. the ‘First Risorgimento’– giving rise to the South of Rome culture that prevails down to present day southern-Italian Americana (see Related Articles box # 1). As with the ‘Second Risorgimento’ circa 1870, the first unification of Italy led to profound changes in the South of Rome political economy and culture. However, whereas the 1870 Risorgimento destroyed the economy of the South leading to the great South of Rome diasporic emigration and the creation of southern-Italian American culture, the First Risorgimento created new revolutionary pastoral and agricultural economies. The ‘pastoral revolution’ was discussed previously (see Related Articles box # 2). The purpose of this article is to consider the First Risorgimento ‘agricultural revolution’, which gave rise to capitalist investment theories and agricultural methods that prevail down to the Euro-American present. Indeed, principles espoused in Second Century B.C. South of Rome economics are still taught in university Business Schools. Also, consistent with this blogs relentless theme – pedagogic implications are deduced.
Source:
Hannibal’s Legacy – The Hannibalic War’s Effects on Roman Life Vol. II; Chapter VIII “The new plantation agriculture in Post-Hannibalic Peninsula Italy”; Arnold J. Toynbee
Preface
Within a generation of Hannibal’s expulsion from the South of Rome in 201 B.C., revolutionary capitalist concepts and practices of agro-investment took hold South of Rome; as evidenced in the writings of ancient scholars such as Cato, Varro and Columella.
The great classical scholar and world historian A. J. Toynbee writes:
“Circa 170 B.C., M. Porcius Cato’s book ‘De Agri Cultura’, describes the economic and social effects of the Roman-Carthaginian War that were already making themselves felt … The contents of the book testify that the post-Hannibalic economic and social revolution in Central and South-Eastern Italy is already an accomplished fact.” (p. 296 emp.+)
Interestingly, De Agri Cultura reads like a text in a contemporary School of Business. The concepts of modern business practices and logic of comparative capital investment were clearly in place South of Rome at this early date. Toynbee writes:
“The treatise was written for the benefit of businessmen. The theme of the treatise is that, if the business man reinvests his capital in land and in slaves to work that land, he will be able to make his money with a minimum of risk compared with the dangerous, and often disastrous, pursuit of risking one’s capital in trading ventures.”
“[The businessman] will exert himself to earn the maximum income from his capital outlay. (It is the margin of profit over costs, not the gross profit, that counts.)” (p. 297 emp.+)
Significantly, Cato’s thoughts regarding investment and agricultural practice were not anecdotal or ephemeral. Varro (“Res Rusticae”, first century B.C.), Columella (“De Re Rustica", first century A.D.) and Pliny ("Historia Naturalis", first century A.D.) developed similar concepts of capitalist business as they pertained to agriculture. Toynbee:
“For an analysis of investment in capital equipment see Varro … Writing nearly two centuries after Cato, Columella’s principles were still the same as Cato’s … Pliny also discussed profitability of commercial agriculture” (p. 297, fn. 2 - 4)
“Yeoman” (Family) Farms vs. Plantations
While the above from Cato et al. is about business, their writings are pregnant with implications the historian can deduce about the political economy South of Rome following the First Risorgimento.
For example, consider the concept of ‘capital investment’ in agriculture. In pre-industrial societies, there are two generic types of faming: ‘family farms’ and ‘plantations’.
Family farm (aka "subsistance farming")
By definition, owned and worked by a family, and possibly some hired help. Only enough acreage is planted (indeed, maximum capable of being planted) to grow enough food to feed the family (i.e. subsist) and some modest surplus that may be sold at a local farmer’s markets.
The number of family members, availability of hired-help and the size of the local market limits the amount of acreage that may be planted and harvested.
Plantations
On the other hand, a plantation constitutes a very large amount of acreage entailing a very large workforce growing enough food to sell in very large and distant markets, as oppose to small local markets.
The prerequisites of plantation farming are 1) access to buyers of large amounts of product and 2) capital to buy land, equipment and (in the ancient world) slave-labor to work the plantation.
Note: in industrial societies, agricultural work is predominately done with machinery. Whereas, in pre-industrial faming, large-scale production (i.e. plantations) could only be accomplished with slave-labor. In both cases, modern machinery on the one hand, and ancient slaves, on the other, constitute capital investment for which the capitalist investor seeks a rate of return.
For example, on a modern large-scale farm, the harvest is done with harvesting machines. In pre-industrial large-scale farming, de jure slaves or de facto slaves (i.e. serfs) would do the harvesting work done by machines today.
Thus, just as a modern day purchase of a harvesting machine, the purchase price of a slave was considered a capital investment for which the investor seeks a ‘rate of return’
Note: the perfectly modern capitalist’s concepts. The only difference: capital as inanimate-machines (e.g. tractor) vs. capital as human-machines (i.e. slave).
Political Pre-Conditions of Capitalist Plantations
As was demonstrated in a previous article on this site, a highly divided South of Rome, both politically and militarily, precluded large-scale animal husbandry (see Related Articles box 2). It was not possible to move large herds of animals across hundreds of miles from winter to summer pastures and then to distant markets to sell the animals. For example, the Samnites would not let the Greeks move herds across Samnite lands to summer pastures in Abruzzi, and back again to Puglia in the winter. However, with Roman unification of Samnite and Greek lands, the movement of herds became possible and large-scale animal husbandry industry came into existence and persisted down to the great southern diasporic emigration to the Americas circa 1900 A.D.
Similarly, large-scale plantation agriculture was not possible in a divided Italy. It was not possible to move produce from the local growing area to the national and international markets. Accordingly, large-scale plantation agriculture was not profitable. However, again, Roman unification created the political and transportation conditions that affected the economic system.
The study of the economic implications of political structures and conditions, academically, is called political economy.
Toynbee is, as usual, cogent on the topic of economic changes following the First Risorgimento’s political changes South of Rome. He writes:
“Thus, already, by Cato’s day, the economy of Peninsular Italy was being transformed, and, with it, the landscape. The traditional peasant subsistence economy was being superseded by two new forms of land utilization:
- on the one hand a nomadic livestock industry,
- on the other hand an intensive planation agriculture. (p. 309)
Profits – the unify principle in capitalist economies
Toynbee goes on:
“These two new kinds of husbandry were at opposite poles from each other in their technique, but they were at one with each other in their objective. Both were conducted with the object of making the greatest possible profit from an investment of capital, and both were producing, not for subsistence, but for sale. (p. 310)
Similarly, in modern capitalist economies, it makes no difference to the capitalist what is produced (cars, computers, perfume, dog food, etc.); the sole criterion for decision-making is profit. Thus, we see in second century southern Italy the germination of Western Civilization’s concept of modern capitalism.
How to ‘Make a Buck’ in Farming and the Cultural Implications
While the ancient writers developed theories of economic capitalism, they were not ‘Ivory Tower’ or ‘Platonic’ philosophers. They posited very specific methods and mathematical formulas about how to operate an efficient plantation and thereby maximize profits.
Toynbee quotes Cato:
“The [plantation owner] will be anxious to make sure that his capital equipment – human, animal and inanimate – is justifying his investment in it by being continuously productive.
“The permanent staff of slaves must never be idle. Useful work indoors must be thought up for them by the plantation-overseer (vilicus) when bad weather or the shortness of the winter daylight makes it impossible for them to work out of doors.
“Always remember that, if no work is being done, cost are mounting up all the same. So keep the capital investment and the running costs down to a minimum (p. 297)
Also, as machinery must be maintained and serviced based on the amount of work it does – similarly the ‘slave-machine’. Toynbee writes regarding …
“Cato’s business sense … the human slaves are implements … [same as] inanimate apparatus. If the apparatus, animate and inanimate, is to be kept working at full stretch – as it has to be if it is to bring in an adequate return on the capital invested in it – it must also be kept in repair.
“In accordance with non-humanitarian economic principles, Cato recommends: allocate food-rations in proportion to the strenuousness of the physical labour that is being exacted from the living tool.
“Cato writes: ‘Rations for the staff: … slaves, four portions of bread during the winter; when they begin to dig the vineyard, five portions, until there are figs for them to eat; when they have begun eating figs, go back to the four proportions of bread …Wine for the staff …Give the slaves an extra allowance in proportion to the work that they do.’ “ (p. 304).
Ancient Profits and Southern-Italian American Culture
Toynbee goes on at length quoting Cato and the other ancient writes on the subject of how to operate a plantation profitably. It makes for fascinating reading and insight into the minds of the ancients southern Italians.
Most often the History of Rome, especially the history taught in school, is about war. Political economy and its implications for the culture are virtually non-existent.
Juxtaposed to these endless war histories, Toynbee brings the people to life (People’s History) – i.e. the progenitors of southern-Italian Americans who created a culture that comes down to southern-Italian Americana today.
For example: Wine and Oil
The quest for maximum profits dictated decisions about what products should be grown and produced on a planation. The cultural effects of ancient economic decisions are still manifested in the significance of wine and oil in the southern-Italian American cuisine.
i-Italy.com, for example, has a wine editor and regularly runs articles on wine; as do many other philo-Italian publications.
Amazon.com lists of dozens if not scores of books about Italian olive oil.
Both of these contemporary manifestations of food culture can be traced back to the mass production planation economies South of Rome during the First Risorgimento. (Which is not to say the use of wine and olive oil originated South of Rome; rather, the pervasiveness of the use was made possible by the implementation of First Risorgimento plantation innovations, and that pervasiveness comes down to the present.)
Toynbee notes how transportation issues affected decisions about what products to produce and thereby maximize profitability of plantations.
“The cost of overland transportation is revealed by a comparison of Cato’s respective estimate for transporting a wine press in different parts of southern Italy … Similarly, location and communications loom large both for Varro and Columella who wrote, ‘The environs of the planation are of immense importance” (p.298)
Toynbee on Cato:
“Markets near or distant, were a matter of life and death for Italian plantations that were producing, not for home-consumption, but for sale; and Cato’s insistence on selling is emphatic. ”
Accordingly,
“The intention to sell the product, and the need to produce what would be not only marketable but also portable at non-prohibitive costs of carriage …” (p. 300)
In turn, this concern about the “cost of carriage” lead to the decision to minimize the production of grains and maximize the production of wine and olive oil.
“Grain was so bulky in proportion to its price that as a crop for sale, it would not bear the cost of overland carriage … the grain and fodder gown on Cato’s olive orchard are for home consumption only.” (p. 301)
Whereas, wine and olive oil were more easily transportable and at far less cost (therefore more profitable); accordingly, the dictates of maximum profits logically lead to the decision to maximize the production wine and oil instead of grains.
In sum, the cultural implications of Cato et al. business writings are important. Specifically, they are not writing for the benefit of experienced farmers. Obviously, experienced farmers would know how to run a farm. Rather, the writings are direct to ‘capitalist investors’ – non-farmers who have capital to invest and are considering investing in a plantation for the purpose of maximizing the profits on their capital.
Further, those profit maximizing economic decisions impact on the culture of the society as a whole. The quest for profits led to the production of wine and oil, which in turn became absorbed into the southern Italian culture and passed down to the present day southern-Italian Americana.
The Good, The Bad and The Beautiful
As with the British and American economies in the ninetieth century, capitalism was a mixed bag of benefits South of Rome.
The Good
After the near 500 years of incessant warfare that plagued the South of Rome, the Romans imposed a unified political and economic system. This Pax Romana made possible efficient large-scale animal and agricultural husbandry, resulting in the creation of enormous wealth and social benefits. Toynbee:
“The commercialization of Peninsular Italian husbandry was accompanied by urbanization.
Fortified citadels, perched on crags and surrounded by clusters of villages below, were being replaced by commercial and manufacturing towns located in positions that were economically rather than military strategic. (p. 310)
Areas southeast of Rome previously torn by war (e.g. Aurunci, Volsci, Capua, Campania) became manufacturing centers.
The Bad
The plantation system resulted in displacement of the yeoman (family) farm and the importation of vast numbers of slaves.
“Profiteers were making money at the expense of supplant peasant-proprietors and imported slaves … a supplanted yeoman was replace with a gang of slaves (p.296-297)
“The cause of this sinister development (i.e. slavery) was the rapid extension into Peninsular Italy and Sicily, after the Hannibalic War, of the nomadic animal husbandry and the plantation agriculture.” (p. 317)
“The slave-plantation increased the productivity of the land [and] profits accruing to the entrepreneurs … [However] the social consequences was the depopulation of the country side and the creation of a parasitic urban proletariat in the cities … those who remained in the countryside sank to the status of a rural proletariat, who eked out a miserable existence by serving as casual labourers (politores) on the plantations at harvest time. (“A Study of History” v. iii, p 170)
The Beautiful
When we think of Rome today, the most common impression that comes to mind is the art and architecture. These great aesthetic accomplishments were the direct result of the profound economic revolution that accompanied the First Risorgimento after the Hannibalic war. Toynbee:
“The economic effect of the post-Hannibalic war was a great increase in the Peninsula’s aggregate productivity, and the aesthetic effect was a beautification of both the cities and the country-side…
Not only in Rome, but also the smaller towns in the Southern-Central lowlands, were now being adorned with buildings and with works of art of a kind that was common form in Hellenic cities. (p. 310)
Perhaps the most eloquent expression of the beauty of the First Risorgimento southern-Italy comes from the First Century B.C. poet Lucretius:
“Thereafter, men experimented with one way after another of cultivating their darling land. They discovered that the Earth tames wild fruits with coaxing and with kindly cultivation. … So, day by day, they compelled the woods to retreat … giving place to … smiling vineyards on hill and plain, and to let a zone of olive trees – swarming over hillside and valley on an plain – interlaced the landscape with its distinctive blue-green hue.
“This is what greets your eye today. The whole countryside looks like a lovely variegated tapestry, now that men adorn their estates, within, with rows of sweet apple-trees, and embrace them in a surrounding girdle of flourishing plantations.” (p. 311 fn. 4 from “De Reum Natura", Book V lines 1367-1378)
Poetry vs. History
Toynbee:
“The Latin lines of Lucretius’s are as lovely as the transfiguration of the Italian landscape which they conjure up so vividly to the mind’s eye.
“Yet, though this may be poetry’s last word, it is not history’s;
for the landscape that the Roman poet is describing is one ‘where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile’.
The new Italy is a paradise for the fruit-tress and for profiteers and a comfortable berth for oxen, but it is a purgatory for evicted peasants and hell for imported slaves. (p312)
Conclusion
It is an impeccably and voluminously documentable Fact of History, that southern-Italian Americans have the longest continuously evolving cultural history of all Euro-American nationalities. Fully 3,000 years.
Moreover, literally the whole of contemporary European history and culture originates between Rome and Sicily. All European nations trace at least some part of their contemporary culture to Southern Italy:
- Ancient Greek culture came to Europe thorugh the South of Rome (Magna Graecia)
- Christianity, originating in the Middle East came to Europe through the slave populations South of Rome ("A Study of History" v.1, p.57)
- Christianity, originating in the Middle East came to Europe through the slave populations South of Rome ("A Study of History" v.1, p.57)
- Linguist Joseph Privitera argues that Sicilian was the “First Romance Language” (see Related Articles box #4)
- The Roman-arch sprung from a Corinthian column, the most pervasive structural and aesthetic form in European architecture until WW II, made its first appearance in Diocletian’s Palace. (see Related Articles box #5)
- The ‘pointed-arch’, the aesthetic and structural essence of Gothic Cathedrals, first created in the Middle East, made early European appearance in Palermo’s “Admirals Bridge” ("Norman Architecture" Edith Browne p.35)
- Centuries before Europe transcended city-state and feudal-state forms of government into nation-states, Southern Italy and Sicily were unified under the Normans, and that nation-state prevailed until the 1860 Piedmont invasion and conquest. (see Related Articels box #6)
- “The importance of the poetic forms bequeathed by the Sicilian school can scarcely be overstressed. The canzone became a standard form for Italian poets for centuries. The Sicilian-school sonnet became, with variations, the dominant poetic form not only in Renaissance Italy but also elsewhere in Europe, particularly in Elizabethan England, where, after its introduction in the 16th century, it was modified to form the distinctive English, or Shakespearean, sonnet.” (Britannica)
Y’all pick'n up on m'ah drift here?
The South of Rome was the vortex where all the ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures converged into the chrysalis from which emerged and evolved Western Civilization.
Yet ironically, in the American education system from middle to graduate school, that history is completely and literarily ignored (see Related Articles box #7). The most egregious of this pedagogic neglect is the Italian and Italian American Studies programs, in American universities.
How is it that literati largely drawn from the southern-Italian American population are so oblivious, indifferent and, in the case of “Italian - de facto Tuscan – Studies”, insulting (Terroni-izing) to their own heritage? (see Related Articles box # 3)
Millions of southern-Italian American students cycle through our colleges and universities each year and never hear the words “South of Rome”.
Go Figure!
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