Tuscany: Medieval history

Viticulture flourished despite the frequent, small-scale civil wars. The region produced more or less equal amounts of oil and wine, but by far the largest crop was wheat. Smallholders were rare in this part of Italy, since the land was mostly owned by monasteries, the local aristocracy, and, increasingly, by merchants in the cities. The system of agriculture was often that known as mezzadria, sharecropping whereby the landowner would provide the working capital and the land in return for half (mezzo, hence the name) the crop. In 1132, for instance, the Badia (Abbey) di Passignano (whose wine is now made and sold by the merchants antinori) leased some of its land to a wealthy cobbler for half his crop of olive oil and wine.