Rapid demographic development and the rapid growth of urbanization in Europe in the 18th - first half of the 20th century were made possible by the spread of potatoes. Its roots turned out to be 2.5-4 times more nutritious than cereals, which were then the basis of the diet of Europeans. And an increase in potato plantings by 1% led to an increase in urbanization by 0.03-0.04%.
Economists Nathan Nunn of Harvard University and Nancy Qian of Yale University conducted research on this topic. Their work is published in Oxford University Press's. The research of scientists is based on a large statistical material and is replete with logarithms and equations. Thesis conclusions from their work look like this.
Potatoes turned out to be the most nutritious and efficient crop in Europe. As an example, researchers cite the average yield of an English farm in the 18th century. These data can be viewed in the table below.
Average yield of an English farm in the 18th century. These data can be viewed in the table below:
42 thousand megajoules is 10,000 calories. This was the approximate daily diet of a peasant family (2 adults + 3 children). The table shows that the yield of potatoes in terms of calorie content was about 3 times higher than that of cereals (from the same area). However, Nunn and Qian make an important point: cultivating potatoes in labor costs was 2.5 times higher than cultivating cereals. But even taking this factor into account, the energy efficiency of this root crop was 25-30% higher than that of cereals.
At the same time, the cultivation of potatoes had another important plus - this crop made it possible in Europe to free up large areas of grain for industrial crops and animal husbandry, whose products provided a lot of raw materials for the emerging industry (flax in Eastern Europe, wool and leather in Western Europe). In addition, potatoes turned out to be not only nutritious, but also more useful crop than previously widespread cereals. Thus, an average potato weighing 150 grams provides a person with 45% of the daily value of vitamin C and 20% of the norm for vitamin B6, as well as 18% of the daily value of potassium. "In much of the Old World, potatoes are often the only defense against scurvy," the researchers write. All this made it possible to reduce mortality in Europe, as well as to improve the quality of the population (already in the second generation in a family consuming potatoes,the average height of a person has increased by half an inch - i.e. 1.3 cm).
Promotional video:
Also, potatoes began to be fed to livestock, which sharply increased their productivity. First of all, pig breeding began to develop. In addition to the increase in meat production, agriculture also received an increase in the output of manure, which was then the main fertilizer. In particular, in Rhine-side Germany, from 1800 to 1850, the application of manure to the fields increased by 2.2 times.
“The influence of potato consumption accounts for 25-26% of the total population growth and 27-34% of the growth in urbanization in the period under review (XVIII - first half of the XX century),” the researchers calculated. Another of their conclusion: an increase in land under potatoes by 1% led to an increase in population by 0.032%, and urbanization - by 0.036%. That is, an increase in potato plantings by 100% (or 2 times) corresponded to an increase in population by 3.2%, and urbanization - by 3.6%. And during the period under review, the area under this root crop grew rapidly. Thus, the state statistics of France recorded an increase in the harvest of potatoes from 2.1 million tons in 1815 to 11.7 million tons in 1840 (that is, almost 6 times in 25 years).
As usual, the first to see the great potential of potatoes were in Western Europe - the areas under them began to rapidly increase in England, in the east of France, in the Netherlands, in Rhine Germany back in the 18th century. A century later, potatoes came to Eastern Europe. Nunn and Qian cite How the Potato Changed World History by William McNeill, professor of history at the University of Chicago. In it, McNeill, in particular, writes that the industrial growth in Germany after 1848 and Russia after 1891 was associated (among other things) with a sharp increase in the area under potatoes.
“The benefits of growing potatoes in fallow fields were especially great east of the Elbe, where rye was previously the dominant crop. Rye requires a shorter growing season than wheat or barley, but has a lower yield. Also, during wet seasons, rye was often infected with the poisonous fungus ergot. The consumption of contaminated rye led to delirium, seizures, decreased fertility, and many cases were even fatal. Therefore, eating potatoes instead of rye in this area led to better health and birth rates. This led to the fact that the surplus mass of the German, Polish and Russian population began to fill cities, as well as to emigrate to the New World,”writes McNeill.
At the same time, McNeill notes that the growth of potato cultivation in Eastern Europe has not been able to seriously change the economy of local agriculture. Landowners and large commodity producers still preferred to grow grain, since it was an export crop. Whereas potatoes, even today, often continue to be a "local culture" that is not sent to foreign markets. The situation in Poland and Russia, for example, was complicated by winter frosts - in which potatoes, during transportation, even at medium distances, lost their marketable qualities (they froze and was suitable only for feed for pigs), and grain, on the contrary, was not susceptible to this factor.
Europe, as the researchers note, and today has an important advantage over the rest of the world - it is its territory that is most suitable for growing potatoes. On the map at the top, dark areas are marked where from 85 to 100% of the area is theoretically suitable for planting potatoes. In Asia, on the contrary, there are much fewer such territories - and this forces the peasants there, instead of cultivating potatoes, to grow rice or corn - and in order to ensure the yield of products of the same caloric value as potatoes, they must occupy 3-3.5 times more area.