The Import Of Corn

Letter 1,70 - to Subdeacon Peter. August 591.

"But for the fifty pounds of gold, buy new corn from foreign traders and store it in Sicily, in places where it will not perish, so that in the month of February we may send many ships there as we can, to bring the same corn back to us. But if we are slow in exporting it, provide ships yourself, and with the help op the Lord, transport this same corn back to us in the month of February, except of course for the corn which we expect to be exported now, in the month of September or October, following our normal custom.
And so let your Experience do this in such a way that the Church's corn is brought together without annoying any of the farmers. For here the crops was so very small that, unless corn is brought in from Sicily, with God's help, a serious famine threatens. But in every way guard the ships that have always been entrusted to the Holy church. The letters sent to you by the glorious gentleman and ex-consul Leo agree with this also."

Cited from: The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. John R.C. Martyn (Toronto: PIMS, 2004), I: 184.