A two-sided kingdom: a Sicily of export and urban grain supply

Abstract

The Sicilian provisioning system sought to guarantee both the subsistence of cities and the income of the great aristocratic landowners interested in the wheat market. A set of economic mechanisms, social practices and political conflicts unfolded around the urban Annonas, dealing with wheat and flour distribution, bread production, contracts for the procurement of supplies, and the price system of the mete, run by political élites. North-eastern Sicily was exclusively consumer, while the west central area produced surpluses for the foreign market and for the rest of the island, including the capital Palermo, and Messina, a rich and hungry city. The centralized office of the Maestro Portulano granted exports through the fiscal and commercial infrastructure of the caricatori, and export permits were traded in a highly dynamic speculative market.