agro - History Lab

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.

The post Seasonality of work by sex. S’Estorell, 1658-1673 first appeared on History Lab.

Wheat prices and wine prices in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers)

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

The post Wheat prices and wine prices in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) first appeared on History Lab.

Price of wheat and price of meat in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers)

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

Different considerations have been made about the evolution of the Spanish economy during the 17th century, in which the existence of a generalised and prolonged crisis in the Spain of the misnamed minor Habsburgs was acknowledged. However, during that period the number of active people did not fall, agricultural production had precisely to register a downward trend, where there was a “hidden unemployment” and the decrease in the cultivated area allowed the average quality of the cultivated land to improve and the breeding of livestock to expand. The price of meat increased during the first half of the 17th century. Taking the terms of trade of the 1570s as a reference point, the trajectory of the terms of trade is not so favourable for meat producers. The behaviour of relative prices was not a sufficient condition for the emergence of important stimuli to expand cattle breeding, since the growth in operating costs led to a decrease in profits. In this sense, the area of communal pastures, due to ploughing, deforestation, enclosures and vineyard plantations, fell sharply in the second half of the 16th century and, most probably, in the first third of the 18th century. This led, as contemporaries reported, to an intense upward movement in the price of herbs between 1550 and 1630. Given the high percentage of production costs, it is likely that the balance sheets of the herds tended to worsen. The demand for meat plummeted in Old Castile in the first half of the 17th century, due to the decline in population, the deep crisis in the cities and economic difficulties in general, and the rise in the price of meat is a testimony to the depression of the cattle ranching industry.

The post Price of wheat and price of meat in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) first appeared on History Lab.

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.

The post Number of people and days of work contracted in S’Estorell, between 1658-1659 and 1672-1673. first appeared on History Lab.

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.

The post Contractual modalities of the labour force in S’Estorell, 1658-1673, 1674-1675 and 1677-1680 first appeared on History Lab.

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.

Wage ratios between labourers and the gender gap in the estates of S’Estorell and Son Costa (1658-1680)

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

In recent years, there has been an extensive historiographical debate on women’s participation in rural professional markets and on the wage gap between men and women before 1800. At the same time, there is also no consensus on the wage share of farm household income. However, wage studies have shown that women were paid significantly less than men for the same work. This gap persisted throughout the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, although it narrowed moderately during periods of intense labour demand. 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. In the mid-17th century, on the Safortesa estate, salaries were paid in cash, in current money or in kind when they were of a mixed nature. In some years, wages were paid in kind, in wheat at the request of the labourers. Payments for extra work were recorded separately from the agreed wage. On the other hand, the tasks of grafting and pruning were considered the most skilled, as both were paid with a mixed wage consisting of a monetary wage and a supplement in kind called companatge (condumio), consisting of a casserole with vegetables, accompanied by salted fish or cheese, wine, oil and bread. The master was paid 6-8 salaries a day, depending on the type of tree; his assistants received 4 salaries a day. The cost of companatge was 1.5 sueldos/day in the above-mentioned years. In the middle years of the 17th century, pruning was not as important as it became in later periods, when the olive trees were mature and their yield depended on more energetic pruning. The wage in this case was 51% lower than for grafting and 29-39% higher than for digging the roots. However, the range of women’s wages was narrower: seasonal workers received a mixed monthly wage, part in money and part in oil, plus other supplements such as accommodation, firewood, water and transport to and from their residence to the farm. The wage for picking olives was 20% higher than the one for digging in the pedios. In short, the wage gap for similar work (digging cereals) in the highlands and plains was still very high, with women’s wages representing less than 40% of men’s, figures very similar to those of the mid-16th century.

The post Wage ratios between labourers and the gender gap in the estates of S’Estorell and Son Costa (1658-1680) first appeared on History Lab.

Price of wheat and price of barley in 17th century Spain (Annual averages)

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

The post Price of wheat and price of barley in 17th century Spain (Annual averages) first appeared on History Lab.

Bread production in the Archbishopric of Toledo (annual averages expressed as index numbers)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:57 +0000

Different considerations have been made about the evolution of the Spanish economy during the 17th century, in which the existence of a generalised and prolonged crisis in the Spain of the misnamed minor Habsburgs was acknowledged. However, during that period the number of active people did not fall, as agricultural production had to register a downward trend, where there was a “hidden unemployment” and the decrease in the cultivated area allowed the average quality of the cultivated land to improve and the breeding of livestock to expand. Within the Archbishopric of Toledo are the archpriestships of Alcalá de Henares, Alcaraz, Alcolea de Torote, Brihuega, Buitrago, Calatrava, Canales, Escalona, Guadalajara, Hita, Illescas, Madrid, Montalbán, Ocaña, Rodillas, Santa Olalla and Maqueda, Talamanca, Talavera de la Reina, Zorita de los Canes and Almoguera and the Vicariate of Puebla de Alcocer. Before the end of the third quarter of the 16th century, the upward trend in grain harvests in the Archbishopric of Toledo as a whole was reversed. The grain harvests of the Archbishopric registered an intense downward movement between the last years of the third quarter of the 16th century and the end of the decade of the thirties of the 17th century, to the point that at this date in the sixteenth century the average annual production of cereals was barely more than half of that obtained around 1570. When the depression bottomed out at the end of the 1930s, a real reversal of the trend did not take place until shortly before the 1970s. Five phases can be distinguished: between 1570 and 1580, grain yields fell by 13%; there was a brief recovery between 1580 and the first years of the 17th century thanks to the good harvests of 1585-1587; in the third, the first decade of the sixteenth century, yields fell, with the average level about 18% lower than in the previous phase, and production stagnated. Finally, the 1630s proved to be a dramatic decade for Castilla la Nueva, where the average level of grain harvests fell by 20%. In short, in the Archbishopric of Toledo, the key periods of the contractionary movement were the 1630s, the central part of the first decade of the 17th century and the years between 1570-1580.

The post Bread production in the Archbishopric of Toledo (annual averages expressed as index numbers) first appeared on History Lab.