During the Modern Age, the Kingdom of Valencia experienced strong agricultural growth. Agricultural intensification was a more important technique than the mere increase in the cultivated area. It was based on the expansion of irrigation and, consequently, crop substitution. Fallow land was eliminated and a combination of tree crops on the margins of plots and cereal and vegetable rotations were introduced. In short, the area under irrigation increased threefold during the Ancien Régime. Of the Valencian areas, the Ribera del Júcar grew from 1,250 hectares in the 13th century to 29,900 hectares in the 19th century. The reason for this was the greater technical complexity: the rickety and disjointed irrigation system of the first half of the 13th century was replaced by the construction of irrigation channels in the second half of the century, which allowed the irrigated area to increase, formulas which continued to be applied during the beginning of the Valencian modernity and which were subsequently increased in both capacity and extension, leading to a strong irrigation culture. With this improvement in the system, the crop that required a large amount of water was increased: Valencian rice.

Collection: Statistics

Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.

Chronology: XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Link: https://e-archivo.uc3m.es/bitstream/handle/10016/1972/RHE-1995-XI-3-Peris.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Resource type: Statistics

Format: Table

Source: Peris Albentosa, T. (1995). "La evolución de la agricultura valenciana entre los siglos XV y XIX: rasgos cualitativos y problemas de cuantificación", en Revista de Historia Económica, XIII, nº3, p. 495.

Language: Spanish

Date: 1995

Owner: Pablo Ballesta Fernández (Modernalia)

Copyright: ©Revista de Historia Económica ©Tomás Peris Albentosa

Abstract: Evolution of irrigation techniques in the Kingdom of Valencia during the Ancient Regime, leading to a greater extension of rice cultivation

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