Also how it got popular. Frederick the Great wanted the Prussian people to eat it, because somehow they already noticed it is healthy. But they disliked the novelty, especially when promoted by the king. So he set up royal potato fields with armed guards, and told the guards to do not notice anything. This convinced the people this might be something good, if it is guarded and denied to them, and stole it. There is a lesson lurking here, I guess.
Potatoes have much more water inside than cereals so they are far heavier per calorie, more fragile and they spoil pretty fast so they were not an internationally traded commodity like wheat was but they were amazing as a locally eaten subsistence crop.
Also how it got popular. Frederick the Great wanted the Prussian people to eat it, because somehow they already noticed it is healthy. But they disliked the novelty, especially when promoted by the king. So he set up royal potato fields with armed guards, and told the guards to do not notice anything. This convinced the people this might be something good, if it is guarded and denied to them, and stole it. There is a lesson lurking here, I guess.
Potatoes have much more water inside than cereals so they are far heavier per calorie, more fragile and they spoil pretty fast so they were not an internationally traded commodity like wheat was but they were amazing as a locally eaten subsistence crop.
But potatoes were traded. A potato used for international trade is called a “pig”. :)