A documented consignment of potatoes reaches Europe
A shipment of potatoes sent from Gran Canaria to Antwerp is the earliest firm documentary evidence commonly cited for the tuber's arrival in Europe, identified in the customs and merchant records studied by Hawkes and Francisco-Ortega. It indicates that the crop was already being grown commercially in the Canaries as a re-export within a few decades of contact. Adoption as a European field staple took far longer — the potato entered as a botanical curiosity and became a food crop over roughly two centuries.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Potato (Solanum tuberosum) · trade good · Andean origin; Europe, Asia and Africa by transfer · not located
- The Columbian Exchange · phenomenon · Global · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The early history of the potato in Europe
The documentary evidence for the earliest potato consignments to Europe, including the 1567 shipment from Gran Canaria to Antwerp. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted in this session. The authors and the substance are given from the author's knowledge; the journal volume and pagination are NOT asserted because they could not be checked, and a curator should confirm which of the two related papers carries the 1567 evidence.
Euphytica · 1993 · Partly verified
J. G. Hawkes and J. Francisco-Ortega, "The early history of the potato in Europe", Euphytica (1993); the same authors also published on the potato in Spain in Economic Botany in 1992