Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
squares. On maps from the 16th century we can still identify large tracts of vineyards
and orchards within the walls of major cities such as Cologne and Augsburg.
21
Nevertheless cities could not be fed only from the produce of their own territory.
To feed a city of 50,000 inhabitants, already a very large city by standards of the
urbanization north of the Alps (Cologne, the largest city of the Holy Roman Empire
had 40,000 inhabitants by 1400), a hinterland of 45 km radius was needed.
22
But
since within this hinterland other cities might compete for the surplus and harvest
failures or transport problems might impede the provision, larger cities developed
trade links further a
eld to ensure particularly the grain provision as the most
sensitive issue. Thus the Dutch cities received one seventh of their grain from
Gdansk and the Vistula Basin in the 17th century.
23
In the 16th century when
population grew but grain harvests declined and
uctuated, partly due to the effects
of the
, municipal authorities started to set up granaries to stock grain
for their population in order to be able to buffer harvest failures or transport
problems.
24
Urban food provision created speci
'
little ice age
'
c spatial structures of agricultural usage and
cultivation. Which land was used for which crop or cultivation of course partly
depended on its soil properties and fertility but also the distance to the city as a
centre of consumption and marketing and the time and expenses involved in
transport thereto played a decisive role. In the 1820s the Prussian economist von
Th
ü
nen sketched a diagram of concentric rings around a city as a consumption
centre by which he intended to calculate, in which area which crops could be grown
most pro
tably (Fig.
6.2
).
Assuming a level and homogenous surface around the city with soil of even
quality (diagram a), a
rst ring of cultivation closest to the city would be occupied
by market gardeners supplying the urban market with fresh vegetables, fruit, hay,
potatoes and beets. Their products were easily perishable and had to reach the urban
market quickly to be saleable. In the case of hay, the large quantity at low value, i.e.
high transport costs, was the decisive factor. The next zone would be occupied by
dairy farms, since milk and butter were also, without arti
cial cooling systems,
easily perishable. The third zone was frequently occupied by forests devoted to
re-
wood, as again the high transport costs would prevent
—
if no water-transport was
available
re-wood from longer distances. The fourth zone then is
dominated by wheat-growing farmers. Given the model assumptions of Th
—
the import of
ü
nen, it
would be dif
nd exact matches to his model in reality. But in the case of
London, one of the fastest growing European capitals in the early modern period,
from its topography close to diagram B, we can clearly identify zones of special-
ization, which are arranged at different distances from the capital: at distances of
cult to
21
Kie
meyer (
1999
).
22
Clark, European Cities, 140; the city of Cologne needed 1,800 km
2
for its provision with grain,
a low
gure due to the very fertile soils. Eiden and Irsigler (
2000
).
23
Unger (
1999
).
24
Dirlmeier (
1988
).
ß
ling and Pla
ß
