The Brits and their Beef

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis:

Columbus's interest in India has a lot to do with the fact that it was a
major source of spices. Beef eaters in Europe relied on spices such as
pepper, ginger root and cloves to mask the flavor of rotting meat.
When Columbus "discovered" America, he found no spices but plenty of
grazing land. He introduced cattle to the Americas on January 2, 1494
when a number were unloaded in Haiti. Today 400 million head of
cattle inhabit the Americas.

The Spanish continued introducing longhorn cattle throughout the
next two centuries, where they thrived. In the 17th century, the
population of Caracas, Venezuela ate 50 percent more beef than the
citizens of Paris, even though they were outnumbered by 10 to 1. By
the 1870s there were over 13 million head of cattle in the pampas of
Argentina alone. Many ruling class families in Latin America today
are descendants of the early cattle importers. They grew rich satisfying
the wants of beef-hungry Europeans and their wealth became more
and more concentrated. By 1924, less than 3 percent of the ranchers in
the central valley of Chile controlled 80 percent of the grazing land.

As early as the 17th century, the British had become the most
ravenous beef eaters in Europe, especially the aristocracy and the
emerging bourgeoisie. The drive for more pastureland to satisfy their
habit caused them to colonize Scotland and Ireland. Soon to follow were
the North American plains, the Argentinian pampas, the Australian
outback and the grasslands of New Zealand.

The British gentry has a particular taste for highly fatted beef and they
became obsessed with obese animals. It was common to see oil
paintings in a lord's estate of his most corpulent animals. Prize-
winning animals--in other words, the fattest--became a symbol of
ruling class power and prestige, much as Rolls-Royces are today.

By the latter half of the 19th century, the British home market demand
for fatty beef exceeded the supply. Scotland and Ireland had become
overgrazed. In the early 1870s, reports began filtering back to English
financial houses about the immense grazing land available in the
western United States.

Of course, there was only one problem. The grazing land was occupied
by buffalo and the Indians who depended on them for their survival.
The solution to this problem will be discussed in my next post.



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