Because diseases have been the biggest killers of people, they have also been the decisive shapers of history. Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies, New York-London 1997, p. 197.

Pests, parasites, and pathogens exercised a powerful influence upon the course of Europe's pre-industrial development through their effects upon the survival and reproduction of humans, plants, and animals. Over the centuries, micro-organisms in many guises precipitated crises, prolonged recessions, and, in the long run, promoted a biological survival of the fittest. Conversely, their absence or quiescence has underpinned episodes of economic and demographic efflorescence as, for instance, during the 'long' thirteenth century

Always the relationship between disease and economic activity has been more complex than any simple Smithian, Malthusian, Ricardian, or Marxist interpretations of events will admit. For instance, although increased human populations and interaction have typically provided the preconditions for the emergence and spread of devastating crowd diseases, such as the Black Death and smallpox, the diseases themselves were invariably biological in origin and therefore exogenous to the economic system. Whereas some diseases have remained endemic, others have either mutated and grown in virulence over time or abated as those exposed to them have gained immunity. A few, such as plague and the English sweat, burnt themselves out and vanished of their own accord. As Massimo Livi-Bacci has observed, 'the historian has many proofs of the changing interactions between humans and pathogens, of the appearance of new diseases, the transformation of some, the disappearance of others' (A Concise History of World Population, 3rd edition, Oxford, 2001, p. 183).

To counter and control epidemics humans have resorted to evasion, religion, medicine, and science. Agricultural producers have coped with biological uncertainty by diversifying, spreading their risks, storing, saving and constantly changing their stocks of seed and livestock. Such efforts have been more necessary in some periods than others and have never been cost free. Success has always been partial and to this day the containment and conquest of plant, animal, and human diseases and protection and promotion of plant, animal, and human reproduction remains contingent upon experience, knowledge, and the investment of substantial economic resources. Progress in understanding and explaining the nature of economic and biological interactions in pre-industrial Europe requires similar investments. Above all, it depends upon the development of explanatory models that better accommodate the essentially two-sided nature of those interactions. It is these interactions that are the central concern of this Settimana.

Introduction/Prolusione: 'Economic and biological interactions in pre-industrial Europe'

Biology in the ascendant or in abeyance: the changing pathology of pests, parasites, and pathogens

Nothing is fixed in the world of biology, since there is a continuous inter-action and mutual adaptation between the major players: humans, pathogenic microbes (bacteria, viruses, protozoa, spirochetes, rickettsia etc), and animals (reservoir or vectors of microbes). Massimo Livi-Bacci, A Concise History of World Population, 3rd edn. , Oxford 2001, p. 183.

Accurate assessments of mortality patterns over time and between countries are difficult to make. Nevertheless, there seems to be enough reliable evidence for us to accept Michael Flinn's conclusion that European mortality began to stabilize during the eighteenth century. It is also likely, as Flinn claims, that this owed something to human intervention. Mark Harrison, Disease and the Modern World: 1500 to the Present Day, Cambridge 2004, p. 69.

Blights of crops, murrains of animals, and plagues of humans were no accidents but arose from specific environmental and biological circumstances. Explaining the origin and nature of infections is therefore fundamental to understanding their timing, diffusion, and demographic and economic impacts. Papers are therefore invited which examine the biological origins, mechanisms of spread, and virulence of those pests, parasites, and pathogens which had a significant impact upon crops, domesticated livestock, and humans between AD c. 1200 and c. 1800.

When and why did pests, parasites, and pathogens abate in their demographic and economic impacts? How was the survival and reproduction of plants, animals, and humans rendered more secure? By what means did humans protect and promote the natural fertility of land, livestock, and people? Was economic progress a cause or consequence of the process? Papers are solicited which consider when, why, and how in Europe before 1800 humans gained an ascendancy over biology.

Demographic and economic reactions to biological impacts

The impact of exogenous shocks to the economy is inexorably linked to endogenous responses. Mark Bailey, 'Per Impetum Maris: Natural Disaster and Economic Decline in Eastern England, 1275-1350', pp. 184-208, in Before the Black Death: Studies in the 'Crisis' of the Early Fourteenth Century, ed. B.M.S. Campbell, Manchester 1991, p. 208.

History demonstrates that there were many different human responses to any given biological event or sequence of events. Some shocks, although quite severe, were largely transitory in their effects. Others led to a more lasting shift in the socio-economic status quo . A few - the Black Death the most celebrated of them - seem to have altered the course of history. Accordingly, papers are invited which focus upon biological and economic interactions. These might include either critical analyses of the demographic and economic reactions to the exogenous shocks of blight, murrain, and plague, or case studies of temporal, spatial, and socio-economic variations in the incidence and consequences of plant, animal, and human infections.

Health versus wealth - the biological and economic standards of living

We are now brought face to face with the irrevocable fact which historians have been loath to recognize, the fact of the autonomous death-rate, the death-rate which could override countervailing influences, such as low prices, an abundance of free land, a shortage of labour, and rising real wages. J.D. Chambers, Population, Economy, and Society in Pre-Industrial England, Oxford 1972, p. 82.

Levels, trends, and variations in standards of living are typically measured in terms of the purchasing power of real wages and incomes of households. Demographic measures of life expectancy, fecundity, morbidity, age-specific mortality, and such indirect indicators of nutrition and health as records of height, offer alternative perspectives on standards of human wellbeing. While some privileged social groups successfully combined wealth with health few societies achieved this for any sustained period of time. In fact, real wage rates tended to be highest when low life expectancy depressed the supply of labour, as during the fifteenth century (memorably described by Sylvia Thrupp as 'the golden age of bacteria'). How general and persistent was this inverse relationship and when, if at all, did it change? Papers are particularly welcomed which compare demographic and palaeo-archaeological measures of human health and sickness with economic measures of material well-being, or which offer case studies of the relationship between morbidity, mortality, and living standards.

Living with uncertainty: religious, scientific, cultural, and economic responses to biological hazards

Plague thinned the cadres of the skilled and learned and reduced their years of service; it weakened schools and universities; and it compromised the quality of cultural traditions. But it also prepared the road to renewal. Moreover, the fear of plague and of unforeseen death intensified the religious consciousness of the population and disseminated it across larger sections of society. But it also favoured the development of a kind of medicinal, even magical, religion, the chief feature of which was the cult of protector and healer saints. David Herlihy, The Black Death and the Transformation of the West, Cambridge Mass. 1997, p. 81.

In a hazard-prone age what strategies did individuals, households, communities and agricultural producers employ to avert, mitigate, or reconcile themselves to biological risks? How effective were those strategies, what were their costs, and how did they change and evolve in response to changing biological circumstances? Papers are invited which explore these aspects of biological and economic interactions and the wider economic implications of 'modes of thought and feeling' engendered by biological uncertainty.

XLI Settimana di Studi, April 26 - 30, 2009

Economic and biological interactions in pre-industrial Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries
Prato, April 26-30, 2009

Structure of the Week

Sunday, April 26: Welcome and introduction
Introduction/Prolusione: 'Economic and biological interactions in pre industrial Europe'

First session: Biology in the ascendant or in abeyance: the changing pathology of pests, parasites, and pathogens

Reports:
(A) The biological origins, mechanisms of spread, and virulence of pests, parasites, and pathogens, AD 1200-1800. (B) When, why, and how in Europe before 1800 pests, parasites, and pathogens abated in their demographic and economic impacts.

Communications:
Case studies of (a) specific pests, parasites, and pathogens and their human impacts, AD 1200-1800, and (b) when, why, and how humans gained an ascendancy over biology

Second session: Demographic and economic reactions to biological impacts

Reports:
Critical analyses of demographic and economic reactions to the exogenous shocks of blight, murrain, and plague

Communications:
Case studies of temporal, spatial, and socio-economic variations in the incidence and consequences of plant, animal, and human infections

Thirth session: Health versus wealth - the biological and economic standards of living

Reports:
Demographic and palaeo-archaeological measures of human sickness and health compared with economic measures of material well-being

Communications:
Case studies of the relationship between morbidity, mortality, and living standards

Fourth session: Living with uncertainty: religious, scientific, cultural, and economic responses to biological hazards

Reports:
Strategies employed by individuals, households, communities and agricultural producers to avert, mitigate, or rationalise biological hazards

Communications:
'Modes of thought and feeling' engendered by biological uncertainty and their wider economic implications

Scholars are invited to evaluate the following introduction and to send their proposals by filling out the appropriate format, which has been prepared in order to assist the Scientific Committee in accurately evaluating the proposals.

The proposal should represent an original contribution and should display new research on the proposed theme. It should be in the form of a report (either a general or comparative contribution) or in the form of an oral presentation (a specific contribution or a presentation of a case study).

The format used to fill out the proposal should be submitted by September 15, 2007 at the following address:

Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini"

via Muzzi 38, I 59100 Prato, ITALY

e-mail: datini@istitutodatini.it

The Scientific Committee will only consider formats which have been filled out completely. Acceptances will be decided by October 31, 2007.

The members of the Committee are: Wim Blockmans (Leiden, President), Michele Cassandro (Siena, Vice President), Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada (Madrid, Vice President), Giampiero Nigro (Florence, Scientific Director), Giorgio Borelli (Verona), Bruce M.S. Campbell (Belfast), Murat Çizakça (Istanbul), Antonio Di Vittorio (Bari), Laurence Fontaine (Paris), Alberto Grohmann (Perugia), Adam Manikowski (Warsaw), Paola Massa (Genoa), John Munro (Toronto), Michael North (Greifswald).

All of the works presented at the conference must be original and should not have been previously published or translated from prior publications.

The provisional texts of the selected contributions for the Week of Studies should be submitted to the Datini Foundation by February 28, 2009. Such contributions will be put online on the web pages of the Institute before the Week of Studies (with protected access reserved for the speakers, the communicators and the members of the Scientific Committee), in order to allow a more thorough discussion of the contents.

During the convention, participants will present a synthesis of their contribution, which should last 20 minutes for the reports and 10 minutes for the oral presentation, in one of the three official languages of the conference (Italian, French and English). Simultaneous translation will be provided for the above mentioned languages.

The definitive texts of the works presented, reviewed by the authors (maximum 70,000 characters for the reports; 30,000 characters for the communications) should be sent to the Institute by June 30, 2009, and will be published (with an abstract in two languages to be prepared by the author) in the Conference Proceedings of the Week of Studies within one year. Texts written in Spanish or German will also be accepted for publication in the Conference Proceedings.

The Datini Foundation will cover the following costs for participants who are definitively invited:

• Train ticket (first class) or plane ticket (special fare in a tourist class), according to the conditions indicated in a letter which will be sent a few months before the convention;
• Lodging for 5 nights in Prato in hotels which collaborate with the Institute (overnight stay including breakfast);
• 20 Euros a day in meal vouchers, which can be used at restaurants with discounted prices which are affiliated with the Institute;
• No monetary reimbursement.