CHRONIC FAMINE IN ROMANIA

Ștefan Luchian, La împărțitul porumbului (Maize Distribution), 1905

King Carol I correspondence:

January 1905:
‘I look back with pain to the past year, which has inflicted so many wounds on us. For my country it has been the worst year of my long reign. We now suffer greatly the consequences of the bad harvest; two-thirds of the population must be fed by the state, otherwise people would be starving. Huge shippings of maize from South America are being distributed to the peasants.’

February 1905:
‘We’re looking forward to springtime because the cattle are out of fodder and sheep are dying by the hundreds. The state has to buy in large quantities of maize for the peasants and for sowing.’ 

April 1905:
'the government has spent 35 million [Franks] to buy in maize from America and fodder to at least in part cover the great needs [of the peasants]. If we get a good crop, we will be able to cover half of these huge expenses.’ 

D.A. Sturdza, leader of the Liberal Party, during a Romanian Academy session:

‘if you look at financial reports regarding the public budget or at the registers of state or county debt, you will see that every two or three years the state or individual counties buy in maize to distribute to famine-stricken peasants. And I’m talking here only of the maize necessary for bare subsistence, clothing is an entirely different matter.’ 

The dramatic decrease in maize consumption in Romania in the last quarter of the 19th century
in the context in which maize was staple/exclusive food for the great majority of the population and exports increased almost fourfold!