They were dying of hunger
In 18th Century Prussia bread was expensive, people were malnourished and famine wasn’t uncommon.
The King at the time was Frederick the Great. He was wise enough to realise that unfed subjects were not a good thing — it is hard to run a kingdom effectively if people keep dying of starvation — so he set about finding a solution.
The wonder food
After a while he came on it, the new discovery from South America, the potato.
- Potatoes are easy to grow
- Potatoes are a reliable crop (there have been exceptions)
- Potatoes contain lots of calories
If his subjects planted potatoes then they would survive and Frederic the Great would be able to collect more taxes and stamp his mark on European history.
This is what is commonly known as a win win.
There was however a small difficulty; the peasants didn’t like potatoes. Potatoes were a novelty and widely regarded as being good for little more than cattle feed.
How do you popularise the potato?
Frederick tried education; he gave out free potatoes and preached about their nutritional qualities, but nobody paid him much notice.
Frederick tried force; in 1774 he ordered his subjects to grow potatoes to protect them from famine. The town of Kolberg replied:
“The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them
so what use are they to us?”
Frederick tried cunning; he grew potatoes himself, but not any old potatoes, royal potatoes. They were only for consumption in the royal court and no peasant was allowed to eat them.
The royal potato fields were planted across the country and guarded day and night to make sure the peasants didn’t steal them before they could be harvested.
Peasants aren’t fools
The peasants may have been hungry, but they certainly weren’t stupid. If potatoes were good enough for the King then they were certainly good enough for them. So in the middle of the night, when the guards were sleeping, the peasants crept into the fields and stole the potatoes.
Stealing potatoes was a whole lot easier than poaching game — potatoes don’t move nearly so quickly — and the peasants became quite proficient at it. Before long they were growing their own.
To this day Prussian cuisine (think Poland and Germany) is noted for its use of the humble potato.
A story with a moral
I can’t vouch for the truthfulness of this story, it is just a legend, but if you visit Frederick the Great’s grave in Potsdam you will find that the locals have covered it with potatoes.
If you really want to change people’s behaviour you must lead by example.
What you do has far greater impact than what you say ~ Stephen Covey
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Image by Frank M. Rafik
If only they knew about french fries back then… perhaps the story would have a different ending and a different moral.
Annette :-)
I guess they would have taken off a whole lot quicker
James,
Great story and an excellent example of the use of power of telling someone that they can’t have someone. I guess we are all kids really.
Adrian
It is a tactic my wife uses routinely with me Adrian
Hello James,
I thank you for sharing this – I learned something new today.
Find myself totally with the message/lesson that you are sharing. We are not creatures that are reached through reason or reasoning. We are embodied creatures who have an endless capacity to copy and imitate. We are also creatures with an acute sense of social standing. Put that together and you find we are creatures who imitate that which enhances our social standing: which is usually what those higher in the social ranks do in terms of talk, dress etc. Did you know that in the medieval ages there were strict rules (and severe punishments) on what one could or could not wear – as clothes were signatures of social rank?
I’d like to end by sharing with you the background to the hijab. Do you know how this practice come about? You will find nothing about covering up in this manner in the Koran. It came about in the early days of the muslim community in Medina. It came about, according to the sources I have read, when Mohammed had a humble abode right next to the mosque. It came about when is modest home was the source of the most important meetings. So the men would come in, and when they were being served food by Mohammed’s wives, their eyes and attention would wander. So Mohammed, instructed his wife to cover themselves up so that that which was occurring would no longer occurred. Guess what happened? The menfolk closest to Mohammed, ended up instructing their wives to do the same. And the menfolks closest to these men did likewise. And it became a social custom without anyone setting out to make it a social custom. Interesting creatures we are!
All the best to you on this day – your birthday! May you live long, live joyfully, and prosper. I consider it a privilege and a blessing to be in communication with you.
Maz
Thanks for the Birthday wishes Maz, and thanks for the story.