p-seed-trade-msg - 2/22/01 Comments on the period seed trade. Trading among neighbors. References. NOTE: See also the files: seeds-msg, p-agriculture-bib, p-herbals-msg, Pattrn-Gardns-art, roses-art, gardens-msg, gardening-bib. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 14:17:19 -0500 (EST) From: Jenne Heise Subject: Re: SC - seed markets? Going back to an old topic: > A period "seed market"? More details or referances please. This is the > first I've heard of any such thing. I assume this was only very late > in period, when trade was more stable and there was less small-scale > warfare, since the lose of the seeds for next year's crops could be > devastating. Or was this just for ornamental plants? Argh. I've found a few references in Rosetta Clarkson's _Green Enchantment_ (foofy title, good book), specifically to Gardiner: "Richard Gardiner of Shrewsbury, a merchant and a churchman, published a garden book in 1603, still remembered. It was believed to be the second edition of a work first published in 1597, the year of Gerard's Herbal... To Gardiner goes the distinction, in his little 30-page booklet, of producing the first book solely on vegetables and first seed catalog we know... Gardiner's severest chiding, however, was of the cheating seedsellers whom he called 'Caterpillars,' avowing that they yearly rob from the poor by selling them 'olde and dead seedes.' He held that though no laws on earth would punish these dishonest men, 'The Almighty God doth beholde their monstrous deceipt and except those doe repent with speed, both God and man will abhorre them as outragious theeves.'... Gardiner concludes his tirade on seedsellers with the wish not only that they would sell good seeds but would be reasonable in the price. He himself sold seeds and in the book he gives a price list which was certainly modest in its demands. He had turnip seed at 12d a pound, beed seed 2d a quart, and carrot seeds 2d 'the waxe pound without deceit.'" Tusser, on the other hand, in his _Five hundreth points of good husbandry united to as many of good huswifery_ (1573), says: "Good huswives in summer will save their owne seeds Against the next year, or occasion needs: One seed for another to make an exchange, With fellowly neighbourhood, seemeth not strange." I think that either Hyll or Parkinson has more on the Dutch seed trade, but I haven't found it yet, and I may be mixing it up with Clarkson's reports of Gardiner's fulminations against the importation of Carrots from Holland... More as I find it. -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise jenne at tulgey.browser.net Edited by Mark S. Harris p-seed-trade-msg Page 2 of 2