The Columbian exchange and the reversal of fortune.

• Author: Grennes, Thomas

It is difficult to think about modern American food without including hamburgers and hotdogs. It is also difficult to think about popular American history without cowboys mounted on horseback tending herds of cattle. However, before the arrival of Columbus in 1492 there were no cattle or pigs in America to provide beef and pork for hamburgers and hotdogs. There was no wheat to make hamburger and hotdog buns. There were no horses for cowboys or Indians to ride. The European settlers brought with them cattle, pigs, horses, wheat, and many other plants and animals that became the foundation for modern food and agriculture in the Western Hemisphere.

It is also difficult to think about modern Mexican food without including rice, tacos filled with meat, ferried beans in animal fat, cheese in enchiladas, and sugar, cinnamon, and milk in chocolate. However, Mexico in 1492 had none of these ingredients. The massive transplantation of plants and animals across the Atlantic Ocean in both directions has been called the Columbian Exchange (Crosby 1972). It has been described as the "greatest human intervention in nature since the invention of agriculture (Fernandez-Armesto 2002: 165), and it has had an enormous effect on the Americas and the entire world. The Columbian Exchange altered the kind of food Americans and Mexicans eat, the kind of agricultural products produced in both countries, and the entire pattern of world economic growth.

This article will concentrate on the effects of the Columbian Exchange, but the exchange of plants and animals was part of a broader process of trade, migration, investment, colonization, and exchange of ideas that followed the voyages of discovery by Columbus and others. The same Old World plants and animals were introduced to the two regions that would become the United States and Mexico, but the effects in the two countries were substantially different. (1) The United States was the poorer neighbor in 1492, but it became relatively richer. The purpose of this article is to show how differences in institutional development affected responses to the same opportunities. I shall concentrate on developments in the United States and Mexico, but the Canadian experience was similar to the U.S. response, and the response in the rest of Latin America was similar to the Mexican response (Cole et al. 2005).

What Products Were Exchanged?

Columbus's discovery favored all naval powers located on the Atlantic Coast of Europe, but England took greater advantage of the opportunity than Spain, Portugal, France, and other Atlantic nations. Both New and Old Worlds gained from the Columbian Exchange, but the New World gained more because its plant and animal species had been less diverse. The number of cultivable plants in America doubled or tripled as a result of the Columbian Exchange (Crosby 1972: 107). Europe and the Americas were once connected, but after separation their plants and animals evolved separately. Large animals that once roamed the Americas had become extinct centuries earlier, and by 1492 dogs and llamas were the largest domesticated animals. In addition to cattle, pigs, and wheat, the New World received chickens, sheep, donkeys, rice, oats, barley, rye, onions, garlic, lettuce, cabbage, bananas, and more (Crosby 1972). Before Columbus there was no coffee, cream, or sugar in America. Coffee was transplanted from the Canary Islands to Martinique and later to Latin America.

In addition to bringing new crops and animals, Europeans brought technology that included iron tools and wheels. They also increased agricultural productivity by planting native American crops, such as cotton, tobacco, and potatoes, in more favorable locations in the New World. Potatoes were native to the Andes in South America, but they were slow in moving to North America. The slow movement of potatoes to North America is an example of Diamond's proposition that agricultural innovations move East-West faster than North-South. Potatoes were first moved from South America to England and Ireland before being transplanted to New England in 1718 by Scotch-Irish settlers (Crosby 1972: 170).

Europe also gained from the Columbian Exchange. It is difficult to think of Ireland and Northern Europe today without potatoes, but they were not grown in Europe before Columbus's voyage. There was no tomato sauce in Italy before tomatoes were introduced from America. There was no Swiss or Belgian chocolate before cocoa beans were sent from America. (2) The Old World also received corn (maize), peanuts, chili peppers, tobacco, and many other plants from America. Corn and manioc from America have become important food crops in Africa.

Not everything about the Columbian Exchange was favorable. Europeans inadvertently carried diseases that had a devastating effect on the native population of America that lacked immunities. The population of Mexico dropped by more than 90 percent in the century after Cortes arrived in 1519 (Coatsworth 2003a:1). It took more than 350 years for the population of Mexico to return to the 1519 level, and this disaster influenced the Mexican response to new opportunities. The Conquistadores also destroyed Aztec institutions and replaced them with Spanish institutions.

When and Where?

New plants and animals were introduced to New Spain a century before they reached the British colonies. On Columbus's second voyage, he transported sugar plants, cattle, pigs, and sheep to the island of Hispaniola (Fernandez-Armesto 2002: 169). Cortes wrote to his King that no ships should be sent from Spain without plants and animals (Simpson 1966: 29). Horses contributed to Cortes's conquest of the Aztecs in 1519, and he immediately moved plants and other animals from Hispaniola to the mainland of Mexico. Potatoes and tobacco were sent from America to England and Ireland before 1600.

Because of the scarcity of domesticated animals in America in 1492, transplanted animals had a greater immediate impact than transplanted crops. In addition to their military value, horses became an important source of animal power and improved transportation. Horses and oxen became an important source of animal power in a land that lacked wheels, as well as large domesticated animals. Without wheels, there were no wagons, waterwheels, or windmills. The importance of introducing animal power to the New World in the 16th century has been compared with James Watt's introduction of the steam engine in Europe in the 18th century (Crosby 1972: 109), and the concept of horsepower is still used to express the power of automobile engines long after they replaced horses and buggies.

Access to horses enabled cowboys to manage large herds of cattle. Horses also facilitated the movement of cattle to Northern Mexico and the Great Plains of the United States and Canada where grazing conditions were more favorable for large herds. After the development of railroads and refrigeration in the 19th century, long distance trade in beef developed. Cattle became an early source of meat, hides, and tallow in Mexico. Beef from local cattle was plentiful in Mexico City by 1550 (Crosby 1972: 84). Tallow for candles became an important source of light in silver mines that produced Mexico's most important export. New World pigs multiplied rapidly, and they quickly became an important source of meat and lard.

Wheat was transplanted to Mexico immediately to provide Spanish settlers with their traditional bread. New World bread had been made entirely from corn for centuries. The new wheat crop in Mexico was mostly consumed locally, but Mexico became a small exporter by 1535 (Crosby 1972: 69). Much later after the railroads made specialized wheat production profitable on the Great Plains, the United States and Canada became major exporters. Barley, oats, and rye were also transplanted to America. There were no amber waves of grain in America in 1492, but the United States later became the world's largest wheat exporter.

Cotton was native to the New World, and fine quality cotton fabric was produced in Mexico before Columbus arrived. With the introduction of sheep, the colonial government encouraged the development of woolen textile production in Puebla (Bazant 1964). The Spanish also introduced mulberry trees and silk production to Mexico.

Geography and climate had some influence on where crops were grown. Some transplanted crops grew better in the warmer regions of Latin America than in the United States. Sugar quickly became an important New World export that displaced honey as the main sweetener in Europe. Sugar cane was one of the first new products to be produced in Hispaniola, and the first sugar mill appeared on the island in 1516. By the 1530s there were 34 mills on the island, including some owned by Cortes. Warmer climate favored sugar, and Portuguese transplanted sugar cane to Brazil, which eventually became the world's largest producer. Bananas are another warm weather...