Campesinado - History Lab

Lumberjacks or Winter

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:38 +0000

The scene depicted by Fiammingo in the second half of the 16th century represents one of the typical tasks of the European peasantry of the time. Winter, a season characterised by cold weather, requires wood to be obtained in order to light a fire and keep the family’s outbuildings warm.

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Country tasks or Spring

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

The scene depicted by Fiammingo shows the typical labours of the European peasantry in the second half of the 16th century at a particular time of the year. Various actions can be seen, ranging from gathering and making butter in the foreground, to milking cows for milk in the background, and in the distance, hunting for meat and skins to make coats and grazing. All of this is set in an idealised bucolic environment.

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Mowing and shearing or The Summer

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:33 +0000

Fiammingo’s composition depicts two of the typical scenes of 16th-century European peasantry, reflecting, through a vertical division in the composition, the activities of harvesting and shearing. After the winter and the subsequent spring, the rains have taken effect in the plantations for the subsequent harvesting of foodstuffs with which to subsist during the coming winter. With the same eagerness, the shearers collect the wool that has protected their animals from the cold to shelter them from the harsh climate that awaits them in a few months’ time.

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Socio-professional distribution by heads of household according to age groups. Lorca, 1797

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

With this resource, the authors highlight the social mobility of the peasantry at the end of the Ancien Régime in the municipality of Lorca (Murcia). The relationship between day labourers, tenant farmers and tenant farmers shows a decrease in the number of day labourers over the course of their life cycle, while the group of farm labourers remains stable. The change of occupation among day labourers, who account for more than 50% of the heads of household aged between 20 and 25, becomes more pronounced from the age of 50 onwards.

The post Socio-professional distribution by heads of household according to age groups. Lorca, 1797 first appeared on History Lab.

Transfer of patrimonial assets by social groups in the province of León (18th century)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

In the 18th century, different social groups developed different inheritance behaviours. Although Castilian inheritance legislation tended towards equal distribution, there were improvements that could unbalance the amount of inheritance. In El Bierzo, in the families of the Dones or hidalguía, 85.4% of the assets were distributed equally in legitimate, being the improvements of Tercio and Quinto, separately, 0.4% and 0.2% respectively. It was common for both improvements to be combined into one, in what is known as “mejora del tercio y quinto” where, in this case, the percentage rose to 14%. This means that the nobility tended to favour a single member of the family. On the other hand, the bourgeoisie showed heterogeneous behaviour. In El Bierzo, the improvement of the Quinto surpassed that of the Tercio and the Conjuntas, but not the administrative bourgeoisie of the city of León, where the Quinto and the Conjuntas were comparable. The peasantry, together with the commercial bourgeoisie and, above all, the liberal professions, in the city of León, had the highest rate of legitimacy with 93.4%, 95.6% and 100%. The mentality and the patrimonial development of the families was, therefore, very much conditioned by the inheritance: the higher the percentage of legitimate, the greater the egalitarian distribution, while the higher the convergence of the Tercio and the Quinto, the greater the empowerment of one heir over the others.

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The amount of inheritances destined for religious purposes. Sahagún and the city of León in the 18th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:40 +0000

Resource oriented to the analysis of the expenses that were made, within the wills, for the burial, funeral and the salvation of the soul of the deceased. These items came out of the fifth of free disposal. The author investigates these deductions by means of the percentage that these expenses represented with respect to the inheritance received by their children. At first, it is noticed that the higher the legitimate, the lower the funeral expenses would be in relation to it. The group of merchants and financiers in the city of León showed the average legitimate per child to be 134,295 reales, with the average funeral expenses being 5,530 (1%). This figure was 1.8% for the administrative and liberal professions bourgeoisie. Finally, the peasantry, with the amount of legitimate patrimony they had at their disposal, the deduction for religiosity was 10%. Thus, the most precarious family economies saw how these expenses affected to a greater extent their capacity for social reproduction and the forging of new family nuclei.

The post The amount of inheritances destined for religious purposes. Sahagún and the city of León in the 18th century first appeared on History Lab.