"...mein Acker ist die Zeit", Aufsätze zur Umweltgeschichte - Oapen

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for genetic reasons. For example, the difference in height between Scandinavians
and South Italians is mainly caused by genetic factors.
The following communications to the sessions were case studies on topics
from Italy and France. Cavalli et al. demonstrated the value of skeletons in terms
of “histoire quantitative”. Evidence of a rare case of endemic syphilis (non veneric
syphilis, Bejel) suggests a very specific socioeconomic environment and pathways
of infection, but also indicating extended traffic of merchandise and people.
In his contribution Andreozzi surveyed the1630 plague event and a subsequent
epizootic that devastated Cremona and its district. The consequences for humans
and the environment were dramatic: persistent emigration from the city and the
hinterland, the expansion of abandoned land, increased breeding of sheep as counterstrategy,
the weakening of land ownership, the interruption of flow to the investments
in the improvement and in the maintenance of the complex system of
rivers, canals and hydraulic works developed across the province and the deterioration
of the rural landscape are the most significant evidence of this stagnation. The
struggle for the individual GDP started severe competition within and between
classes and lead to far reaching redistributions.
It is not really a surprise that occupational health and safety were considerably
low for 18 th century hatters in France (Le Roux), but the example is a nice piece of
work and the message is convincing: Wealth (of the retailer) is always at the cost of
somebody’s (the hatters) health.
In my opinion the topic “health vs. wealth” also needs to talk about a basic dilemma
of the medieval European population but I assume it being also a basic
dilemma for almost any agrarian society that grows.
Though reliable data are scarce, we know about a growing European population
since 500 CE. Numbers are not available, but the character of the population
curve is pretty well known: slightly increasing until 1000 CE, considerably increasing
between 1000 and 1200 CE, accelerated increasing from 1200 to 1300 CE. At
1300 all of a sudden growth stopped and remained on a constant level until the
Black Death took away so many European people. The character of the population
curve thus resembles a sigmoid, a classic logistic form. Ecologists would tend to
talk about the arrival of a population round about the “carrying capacity”. Maybe,
and not even unlikely, if the Black Death had not taken away one third to half of
the European population, the European population would have collapsed during
the last decades of the 14 th century. This is neither novel reasoning nor is it a surprise,
as populations living at the edge of their habitat capacities are very endangered
in their maintenance and numbers by determinants beyond their control
(climate, vermin, disease).
Interestingly enough, there is one feature that has never been discussed so far in
terms of the conference subject. Since it is my task to launch a specific consideration
as credible to the community, it is not necessary to refer to specific literature,
since my argumentation relies on easily accessible textbook knowledge. It relates to
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