Agricultura - History Lab

Sanded agriculture on Lanzarote: vineyards

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

The expansion of vineyards on the island of Lanzarote took place in the mid-18th century. After the episodes of volcanic eruptions in the 1730s, the planting of grapes gained strength on the island with the productive restructuring that took place; the must was boosted and was destined for the production of brandy, which was sold in the American territories of Spain. But what was the system used to make the grapes withstand the climatic conditions? Lapilli”, small fragments of lava thrown up by volcanoes. This material captures the ambient humidity and transfers it to the mantle of the topsoil, providing water in environments with scarce rainfall. The procedure was as follows: they dug holes to plant the vine in the ground and covered the hole with lapilli and, at the top, surrounded the cleft with dry stone to avoid extreme heat temperatures. In this way, vineyards proliferated in Lanzarote, reaching a value of 1,429,491 reales at the end of the 18th century.

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Sanded agriculture on Lanzarote: water crops

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

The volcanoes, although they caused destruction and losses of cereals and livestock, brought about new forms of agriculture using volcanic materials. On the island of Lanzarote, following the eruption of the volcano in the 1730s, a process of agricultural transformation took place. The technique of sanding, which consisted of covering the soil with a layer to buffer the climatic conditions, found its maximum expression on the island with “lapilli”, a volcanic material with a hygroscopic effect (accumulation of ambient humidity). With this method, the soil was covered with lapilli, where the seeds were planted, and ploughed. With the volcanic material, the scarce autumn rains were sufficient to irrigate crops that required water, such as vegetables, pulses or potatoes.

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Harvest threshing machine

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Throughout the Modern Age, agriculture was one of the main sectors of the economy. Especially from the 16th century onwards, it experienced significant growth as a result of the increase in population. Agricultural expansion was evident both in the increase in cereal land and in the prosperity of vineyards. After the 17th century, which saw a certain economic decline in various areas, the 18th century saw a resumption of growth that was accompanied by a series of agricultural reforms, promoted by the Enlightenment, which sought to modernise the structures of land ownership and tenure and to increase agricultural production. The image shows a machine used for threshing crops, a process used to remove the grain from the straw on land where cereal crops were grown.

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Seasonality of work by sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:48 +0000

The demand for agricultural wage labour was highly seasonal, limiting the possibilities of converting it into a regular source of income. The development of agrarian capitalism contributed to this, which led to a productive specialisation in which the participation of women was lower than in the manufacturing and service sectors. The s’Estorell estate was located in the parish of Binissalem, at the foot of the Tramontana mountain range, and was the largest estate in the municipality and one of the ten most profitable on the island, with a valuation of 52,000 pounds according to the land registry of 1685. It covered 520 hectares, occupying the Almandrá valley up to the first peaks of the mountain range in the villages of Alaró and Selva. The work roles assigned to men and women could be broken when the concurrence of different work demands for different tasks in the same season demanded it. From September to January, female and child labour was absorbed in its entirety by the carob harvest (September) and later for the olive harvest (October-January). Once the olive season was over, women joined in January or February the spring weeding for cereals, generally in April and May. On the other hand, the men’s work began in August with the clearing of the olive groves (August-October) and continued from November to January with the digging of the olive trees, which was interspersed with the digging of the wheat fields. In February they began pruning the olive trees (February-April) and then grafting the olive trees (May). In summer, the demand for agricultural labour was concentrated on harvesting, although some labour was also assigned to forestry activities such as charcoal production. Seasonality was, however, a notable anomaly. Around 44% of the working days were contributed by labourers and 56% by day labourers. Female labour accounted for 75% of the working days, male labourers for 17% and child labour was absent, at least in the account books.

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Distribution of land ownership in the Sierra de Alcaraz (1753). Cultivated land.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:31 +0000

In mountain areas such as the Sierra de Alcaraz, land ownership was conditioned by the orography of the territory. In 1753, 28.3% of the land in this mountain range was under cultivation. Of this figure, almost 50% of the cultivation belonged to only 2% of the owners. Likewise, almost half of the total landowners owned only 2% of the arable land. The marked imbalance of ownership translated into different economic benefits: the concentration of land in a few hands meant that 17% of landowners owned more than 1,000 reals of gross produce, a figure that rose to more than 40,000 for the few individuals who owned the most; again, conversely, more than 70% of landowners owned less than 500 reals of produce. The rest of the uncultivated land, 71.7%, could belong to the Council, which was also controlled by the local elites. Livestock farming, like agriculture, showed the same tendency towards concentration in the hands of a few individuals. The survival and future of the less well-off depended on the leasing of land, either for cultivation or as pasture for livestock. These data are but one concrete example of the inequalities that existed in the Ancien Régime and which were perpetuated throughout southern Spain.

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Evolution of tithes during the 16th century in Majorca

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

In order to sustain the population growth in Mallorca in the 16th century, it was necessary to accompany it with an increase in agricultural production, which was accompanied by an increase in the prices of the species and the rent of the land, with a progressive revaluation of agricultural products.
A study of the tithes reveals the uneven evolution of crops throughout this century, with grain as the island’s main crop, but sometimes being insufficient for the island’s growing demand, and therefore having to resort to imports.
The agricultural aspect of Mallorca continued to grow thanks to the expansion of cultivated areas, often to the detriment of pastures and livestock, and more specifically in the first half of the 16th century. The areas where the population grew the most were the island’s cereal-growing areas par excellence, actively participating in the extensive agriculture carried out during these years.

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The price of greenhouse leases in Castile (1750-1829)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

The Report on the Agrarian Law at the end of the 18th century denounced the imbalances in the privileges regarding transhumance, such as the prohibition for farmers to break or mark pastures with the right of possession, directly harming both livestock breeders and farmers, both advocates of a new agrarian policy that would truly address the new needs they had and take into account the characteristics of the available land.
After the Royal Decree of April 1793 was enacted, the owners of the dehesas began a sharp rise in the prices of their leases every time they were renewed, calling into question the traditional uses of the land in the search for a more social than private purpose, causing the transhumance crisis in Castile.

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Number of people and days of work contracted in S’Estorell, between 1658-1659 and 1672-1673.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

The demand for agricultural wage labour was highly seasonal, limiting the possibilities of converting it into a regular source of income. The development of agrarian capitalism contributed to this, which led to a productive specialisation in which the participation of women was lower than in the manufacturing and service sectors. The S’Estorell estate was located in the parish of Binissalem, at the foot of the Tramontana mountain range, and was the largest estate in the municipality and one of the ten most profitable on the island, with a valuation of 52,000 pounds according to the land registry of 1685. It covered 520 hectares, occupying the valley of Almandrá up to the first peaks of the mountain range in the villages of Alaró and Selva. For the exploitation of the estate, a fixed and daily labour force was hired, where the choice of workers was in the hands of the owner and the administrator, who relied on information provided by people they trusted in the nearby villages. This type of agreement was made through women who organised the gangs in the villages, while for the different tasks, contracts were made through the intermediary of foremen. Other matters, such as harvesting contracts, were offered to the highest bidder in the town square. On average, 29 labourers were hired each year, working 148 days: this accounted for 22% of the people hired and 40% of the working days. These labourers carried out a wide variety of tasks: ploughing fields, working in vineyards and orchards, making oil and tending livestock.

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Contractual modalities of the labour force in S’Estorell, 1658-1673, 1674-1675 and 1677-1680

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

The demand for agricultural wage labour was highly seasonal, limiting the possibilities of converting it into a regular source of income. The development of agrarian capitalism contributed to this, which led to a productive specialisation in which the participation of women was lower than in the manufacturing and service sectors. The S’Estorell estate was located in the parish of Binissalem, at the foot of the Tramontana mountain range, and was the largest estate in the municipality and one of the ten most profitable on the island, with a valuation of 52,000 pounds according to the land registry of 1685. It covered 520 hectares, occupying the Almandrá valley up to the first peaks of the mountain range in the villages of Alaró and Selva. The labour contracts for day labourers took on different modalities according to technical and social considerations through different contractual modalities: piecework, daily contracts or day labour. The daily wage contract was clearly the dominant type of contract for all work: 81% of expenditure and 88% of working days were spent on skilled work (grafting olives or pruning vines) or unskilled work (olive picking, digging, etc.). Monthly contracting represented 3.4% of expenditure and 3.9% of total wages. This modality consisted of giving a team of labourers the task of digging or digging for a few months, whose salary was equivalent to that of a farm labourer (35-40 salaries per month). However, the account books do not specify whether they were provided with food. On the other hand, piece-rate contracts represented 15.7% of the expenditure and 6.3% of the number of working days, where women are rarely hired in this modality: 0.1% in terms of expenditure and number of working days. Finally, daily contracts were predominant, while piecework contracts accounted for a small proportion of the number of persons and wages contracted.

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Distribution of day labourers by work and sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673, 1674-1675 and 1677-1680

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

The demand for agricultural wage labour was highly seasonal, limiting the possibilities of converting it into a regular source of income. The development of agrarian capitalism contributed to this, which led to a productive specialisation in which the participation of women was lower than in the manufacturing and service sectors. The S’Estorell estate was located in the parish of Binissalem, at the foot of the Tramontana mountain range, and was the largest estate in the municipality and one of the ten most profitable on the island, with a valuation of 52,000 pounds according to the land registry of 1685. It covered 520 hectares, occupying the valley of Almandrá up to the first peaks of the mountain range in the villages of Alaró and Selva. The olive grove absorbed practically 90% of the daily wage labour, followed at a great distance by the cultivation of cereals (6.8%) and work in orchards or vineyards (1.8%). These tasks were carried out 69.8% by women, 20.5% by adult men and 9.75% by children. In this sense, the feminisation of day labour was very high, although unevenly distributed between tasks and crops. Female and child labour was almost entirely devoted to olive and carob harvesting, with hardly any participation in soil maintenance work. The male labour force, however, was hired for the more specialised work in the canopy of the olive groves and to plough carob trees, but also for unskilled work in the olive groves, such as weeding. In the harvest, however, female workers accounted for half of the workforce, although in a smaller proportion in terms of the number of days worked (44%).

The post Distribution of day labourers by work and sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673, 1674-1675 and 1677-1680 first appeared on History Lab.