Ciudad Real - History Lab

Professional structure of Villamayor de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), according to Memoriales and the Ensenada Cadastre

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:52 +0000

The Ensenada Cadastre offers a wealth of information for the analysis of the population and the household in the rural populations of Castile in the mid-18th century. In the professional sphere of the La Mancha region of Ciudad Real during the 18th century, biological reasons led sons to remain in the parental home for longer periods, as access to marriage was later than for women. The latter often worked in the same trade as their fathers, which required a longer period of apprenticeship and was a great economic help for the families of small farmers, artisans or muleteers who were on the edge of subsistence and needed their children to live. The analysis of age by groups of activity shows that in agriculture and livestock farming the dominant population is young, as those under 35 years of age account for 48.6%, followed at a considerable distance by those between 35 and 55 years of age, with 39.8%. The case of crafts and trades is similar to the predominance of the young population (58.3% under 35), compared to 25% and 16% of the other two groups. Only the service sector breaks the distribution, where the majority group is made up of the 35-55 age group.

The post Professional structure of Villamayor de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), according to Memoriales and the Ensenada Cadastre first appeared on History Lab.

Number of secular inhabitants in Villamayor de Calatrava (Ciudad Real), 1752

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:46 +0000

The Cadastre of Ensenada offers a wealth of information for the analysis of the population and households of the rural populations of Castile in the mid-18th century. The study of Villalar de Calatrava was chosen from among the municipalities because its topographical and productive structure corresponds to that of the entire geographical region of Campo de Calatrava. The information contained in the Memoriales, which have been less used by researchers, is exclusive to the Intendencia de La Mancha. The total number of Memoriales presented in Villamayor de Calatrava (Ciudad Real) is 212 (210 secular and two ecclesiastical), with a total of 862 inhabitants; some deductions due to duplications, absences and other causes must be clarified. Therefore, the number of inhabitants amounts to 815. As in this one, in the Libro de lo personal there are different duplications, where the number of heads of household is 199 as opposed to 210 in the Memoriales.

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Raised in Ciudad Real in 1751

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:33 +0000

The table presented reflects the number and percentage of heads of households who have servants in their service, as well as the typology of the servants. The relationship between both factors, masters and servants, is determined by the socio-economic structure of the territory. Thus, in Ciudad Real, which had a strong agrarian oligarchy, the number of servants per head of household was high, even more so among the wealthy strata of local society. Analysing the data, 61.3% of the servants in Ciudad Real depended on perpetual offices and hidalgos in 1751. In total, of the 50 heads of privileged families, the servant servants numbered 55 and the servant maids 75, showing a preference for females in domestic tasks. On the other hand, the labour and livestock servants numbered 156 and 363 respectively, the vast majority of whom were male. On average, there were 13 servants per wealthy family. The situation of many workers was one of dependence on the master; even more so if we consider the servants in service (the typical profile was female, orphaned, single and young).

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Disentailed assets sold in Castile-La Mancha (1836-1844)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:27 +0000

In the liquidation of the Ancien Régime system, three major agrarian reforms were carried out by the liberal governments. The three disentailments had a great socio-economic impact, as the primary sector was the hegemonic sector in the Modern Age: the disentailments of Godoy (1798), of Mendizábal and Espartero (1836-1844) and the General Disentailment (1855-1895). But what were the disentailments? They were measures that put assets belonging to the Church, the municipalities and the aristocracy that could not be bought or sold up for auction. The aim was to liberalise the agrarian sector by changing the ownership of land and to increase the Treasury’s accounts with the auctions. The reality was that the auctioned land was bought back by the same people who owned it, without changing the ownership structures. Moreover, the disentailed collective and communal lands became private property. Wage-earning peasants, for their part, saw their traditional rights eroded as the concept of land ownership changed.
In Castile-La Mancha, the disentailment of 1836 particularly affected the province of Toledo, with 10,586 estates affected, which were valued at 66.9 million reales and sold at auction for 159.8 million reales. These figures for Toledo accounted for 5% of the national total. The province that contributed the least was Albacete with 772 estates valued at 6.7 million and sold for 11.9, a lower percentage improvement than the rest of the provinces (Ciudad Real 3,370 estates valued at 21 million and sold for 54.4; Cuenca 1,463 estates valued at 13.5 and auctioned for almost double that: 24.2; and Guadalajara with 10,354, valued at 20.6 and sold for 36.6). In sum, the disentailed Castilian-La Mancha lands were valued at 129 million and sold for almost 287 million, 9% of the national total.

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