In the Ancien Régime, land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a few. The Military Orders, churches and convents were some of the institutions that owned the most, thus benefiting the privileged classes. The existing inequalities are reflected when we analyse the property owned by the heads of different households. If we take as an example some municipalities in inland Spain, we can see that, in the mid-18th century, between a third and half of the households did not own land. Among those who did own land, it was small, not exceeding 1 hectare in most cases. Only 1 to 3 per cent of households owned more than 100 hectares. The unequal distribution translated into worse economic conditions, and these were reflected in family structures: while the average household size was around 3.75-4 persons, privileged families increased the number of members to 6 or 7.

Collection: Statistics

Project: 2. Social and economic impact of technological revolutions in Europe., 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity.

Chronology: XVIII

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Resource type: Statistics

Format: Table

Source: García González, Francisco y Gómez Carrasco, Cosme. (2010). “Tierra y sociedad rural en el Castilla-La Mancha a finales del Antiguo Régimen”, en Del Valle Calzado, Ángel Ramón (Coord.). Historia agraria de Castilla-La Mancha. Siglos XIX-XXI. Ciudad Real: Almud Ediciones, p. 108.

Language: Spanish

Date: 2010

Owner: Pablo Ballesta Fernández (Modernalia)

Copyright: © Ángel Ramón del Valle Calzado © ALMUD ediciones de Castilla-La Mancha © Francisco García González © Cosme González Carrasco

Abstract: Land ownership in some municipalities in Spain at the end of the Ancien Régime, highlighting the concentration of land in a few hands

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