arzobispado - History Lab https://historylab.es Fri, 20 May 2022 15:03:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://historylab.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-icono-historylab-32x32.jpg arzobispado - History Lab https://historylab.es 32 32 Price of wheat and price of barley in 17th century Spain (Annual averages) https://historylab.es/price-of-wheat-and-price-of-barley-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=price-of-wheat-and-price-of-barley-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/precio-del-trigo-y-precio-de-la-cebada-en-la-espana-del-siglo-xvii-medias-anuales/ Comparative price of wheat and price of barley in Golden Age Spain

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]]> 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 figures in the table show the stability of the terms of trade of the two main grains in the Leonese market during the 17th century and the first half of the 18th century. As far as Castile is concerned, taking the 1560s as a basis for comparison, the data do not show the depreciation of wheat in terms of barley during the first half of the sixteenth century. Consequently, the behaviour of relative prices does not seem to constitute a stimulus for the substitution of wheat for barley in the course of the contractionary movement.

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]]> Wheat prices and wine prices in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) https://historylab.es/wheat-prices-and-wine-prices-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages-expressed-in-index-numbers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=wheat-prices-and-wine-prices-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages-expressed-in-index-numbers Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/precios-del-trigo-y-precios-del-vino-en-la-espana-del-siglo-xvii-medias-anuales-expresadas-en-numeros-indice/ Comparative price of wine and wheat in Golden Age Spain

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]]> 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. In this sense, it would have to be admitted that in Castilla la Nueva the trend in relative prices not only justified the planting of vines on “bread and butter” land during the first half of the 17th century, but encouraged just the opposite. The Rioja wine price series is much more reliable, as it relates the prices achieved on the market for a homogeneous product. In the period 1618-1628, the behaviour of the terms of trade significantly encouraged the planting of vines at the expense of arable land. In the first half of the 17th century, the movement of prices did not cause a significant change in the composition of the agricultural product, tending to increase the share of wine at the expense of cereals.

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]]> Price of wheat and price of meat in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) https://historylab.es/price-of-wheat-and-price-of-meat-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages-expressed-in-index-numbers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=price-of-wheat-and-price-of-meat-in-17th-century-spain-annual-averages-expressed-in-index-numbers Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/precio-del-trigo-y-precio-de-la-carne-en-la-espana-del-siglo-xvii-medias-anuales-expresadas-en-numeros-indice/ Comparative price of wheat and meat in Golden Age Spain

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]]> 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.

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]]> Bread production in the Archbishopric of Toledo (annual averages expressed as index numbers) https://historylab.es/bread-production-in-the-archbishopric-of-toledo-annual-averages-expressed-as-index-numbers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bread-production-in-the-archbishopric-of-toledo-annual-averages-expressed-as-index-numbers Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:57 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/la-produccion-de-pan-en-el-arzobispado-de-toledo-medias-anuales-expresadas-en-numeros-indice/ Bread production in the archbishopric of Toledo between 1565 and 1680

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]]> 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.

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