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Consider the potato. Solanum tuberosum. La pomme de terre. The tuber. The spud. The bakable, fryable, mashable marvel we all know and love. What might the historical consequences have been if this delicious, nutritious, Peruvian paragon had reached the Roman Empire? The so-called Columbian Exchange, the transfer of plants, animals, and microbes between the Old World and the New, transformed the diet and destiny of Europe.
Hungary received paprika. Italy embraced the tomato. Chocolate overtook the continent. But perhaps the most transformative transatlantic transplant was the potato. At first, potatoes were curiosities. Some speculated about their aphrodisiac properties. Others voiced concern about their leprous appearance. But gradually, and with gathering speed in the 18th and 19th centuries, the potato was adopted as a field crop throughout northern Europe. Land planted with potatoes produces several times as much food per acre as wheat or any other grain. Potatoes can be cultivated in poor soil and will grow in almost any temperate climate. If supplemented with milk, they provide
all the nutrients needed by the human body. Potatoes meant food security, and food security swiftly translated into population growth. It has been estimated that potatoes were responsible for a quarter of Europe's population growth between 1700 and 1900. In Ireland, the most example, the number of inhabitants more than doubled. Potato eaters were also healthier. People from regions that had adopted the potato grew, on average, half an inch taller than their potato-less forebears.
Some scholars have suggested that, by fueling the rise of a new industrial working class, the potato made the global dominance of Northwestern Europe possible. So, how would history have been different if the Romans had potatoes? The scenario isn't as far-fetched as you might think. Sweet potatoes reached Polynesia centuries before Columbus, carried in canoes from the coast of South America. Perhaps we might imagine potato seeds crossing the Pacific by similar means and being caught up in Rome's Indian Ocean trade. Before we surrender ourselves to fantasy, a brief word about this video's sponsor.
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screen to save $20 off your first subscription. Returning to our topic. Let's imagine that the common potato appeared in Rome during the reign of Augustus. Since the Romans were enthusiastic adopters of new crops, we can reasonably assume that the potato's merits would be recognized and that spuds would soon be planted widely. Potatoes, which grow best in cool and damp environments, have never flourished on the coasts of the Mediterranean. They thrive, however, north of the Alps.
This part of the Roman world was thinly populated. The whole province of Britain, for example, had only about twice the population of Rome itself. The potato could have changed that. In the two centuries after potatoes began to be cultivated as a field crop, the population of Europe more than tripled. Although potatoes were only partly responsible for the growth, they added tens of millions to the total. Historically, the population of the Roman Empire rose from around 60 million during the reign of Augustus to 75 million in the mid-2nd century.
Widespread cultivation of the potato during that period could have dramatically enhanced the rate of growth. Let's imagine a Roman Empire of 100 million people with almost all the added population in the potato belt. Britain, northern Gaul, and the Rhine and Danube frontier zones. In the classical world, where technological change was limited, the primary driver of economic growth was population growth. Within Malthusian limits, more people meant more taxes, more trade, and more prosperity. Thanks to the diffusion of existing technologies and increasingly sophisticated trade networks, the growth of the early Imperial Roman economy
seems to have outpaced the population. In theory, then, a steep rise in the Roman population might have massively expanded the empire's economy. The greatest beneficiaries would have been the Rhine and Danube frontiers, where the presence of legionary camps already encouraged economic growth. These regions would likely have become much more prosperous. And if the emperors responded to the upsurge in population with the creation of more units, much better defended.
Potatoes, in short, might have created frontiers that were much harder for barbarians to breach. Alternatively, potatoes could have made everything worse. With the exception of the frontier zones, the northwestern provinces were not well integrated into the Roman economy. It's possible that population growth here would not have kick-started regional prosperity. Instead, an additional 20 or 30 million Romans could have created an economic crisis. In late Qing Dynasty China, for example, the introduction of New World crops, especially the sweet potato, allowed the population to more than double in less than a century.
The resultant social and economic pressures caused widespread turmoil and set the stage for the bloody White Lotus Rebellion. In any case, the cultivation of potatoes would not have stopped at the Roman frontier. The peoples east of the Rhine and north of the Danube were also farmers. It's reasonable to assume that these populations would have grown as quickly as the empires, and that an increase in the number of Roman soldiers and civilians, would have been balanced by multiplying tribes and raiding parties. Perhaps, in the long term, potatoes wouldn't have made a fundamental difference.
The underlying strength and resilience of the Roman Empire, after all, derived from political and social structures, not from the size of its population. Food security might have made life better for farmers on the northern frontiers, but politically and economically, the spud could easily have been a dud. For more, slightly less tongue-in-cheek historical content, check out the Told in Stone Patreon, linked in the description. You'll also find links there for upcoming trips to Italy and Eastern Turkey. And, while you're at it, why not check out my other channels, Scenic Routes to the Past and Told in Stone Footnotes.
Thanks for watching.
