ABSTRACT
From the summer of 1763 famine conditions developed through most of the Kingdom of Naples and afflicted others parts of Italy, notably the southern Papal State and Tuscany, through to 1767; a reasonable harvest in 1764 was followed by bad ones in 1765 and 1766. Varied adverse weather conditions through the previous winter and spring had severely affected all foods, not just cereals; and unlike a similar mainland crisis in 1759, Sicilian or Middle Eastern supplies could not come to the rescue. The situation tested the resources and abilities of a reforming government in Naples under Bernardo Tanucci, and the systems that had been developed to cope with food shortages over the past two centuries. ‘We have begged at all the gates of Europe’, declared Tanucci in April 1764, before getting some help from Piedmont. Naples was known to be better organised over food supplies, and helping the poor, so huge numbers initially headed there from around the Kingdom. Rebellious conditions developed in the city, though a total revolt was possibly avoided by the popular belief that the wrath of God was more to blame than government incompetence. Troops remained loyal enough to keep some control. Tanucci reported on major tumults in cities like Altamura, Crotone, Rossone and Taranto. Villages rose against feudal lords and pillaged their castles. Charitable resources could not cope. In bitterly cold December 1764, English ambassador William Hamilton reported seeing 2000 sick in a Neapolitan hospital ‘crowded together with no other covering but a shirt which they have worn four months’, having no bread for twenty-four hours ‘owing to the failure of the charitable subscriptions that have hitherto supported them’. He also commented on ‘the numberless emaciated objects that present themselves in every street’.1
