Public granaries as a source of proxy data on grain harvests and weather extremes for historical climatology

Abstract

Public granaries served as key infrastructure to improve food security in agrarian societies. Their history dates to the oldest complex societies, but they experienced a boom period during the 18th and early 19th centuries in Europe. In Bohemia and Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic), numerous granaries were established by decree in 1788 to provide serfs with grain for sowing in the face of fluctuating weather. Here, we analyse granary data from 15 out of a total of 17 considered domains in the Su & scaron;ice region (southwestern Bohemia) from 1789 to 1849 CE. We use the documented annual values of grain borrowed by serfs, their grain depositions, total grain storage, and the total debt of serfs at the end of the year as proxies for harvest quality and size. Based on the series of these four variables, we calculate weighted grain indices, considering the balance between borrowed and returned grain: a weighted bad harvest index (WBHI), a weighted good harvest index (WGHI), a weighted stored grain index (WSGI: WSGI-, more borrowed than returned; WSGI+, more returned than borrowed), and a weighted serf debt index (WSDI: WSDI+, more borrowed than returned grain; WSDI-, more returned than borrowed grain). WBHI, WSGI-, and WSDI+ were used to select years of extremely bad harvests, while WGHI, WSGI+, and WSDI- were used to identify years of extremely good harvests. We tested selected extreme harvest years against documentary weather data and reconstructed temperature, precipitation, and drought series from the Czech Lands. We discuss the uncertainty in the data and the broader context of the results obtained. The findings document the potential of this new methodology using widely available public granary data as proxies for historical climatological research.