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Weekly of agriculture and arts addressed to parish priests (1797-1808)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:34:35 +0000

The Royal Botanic Gardens Digital Library is an online resource providing free and open access to more than 7,500 publications from the early modern period to the present day. It contains an excellent digital collection based mainly on materials in the form of books, magazines, pamphlets and leaflets which have been previously digitised and which are mostly from the collection of the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens. In this case, the Semanario de Agricultura y Artes addressed to the parish priests, created in 1797, aimed to inform in an updated way and through a newspaper-like format, of the advances and new techniques in the arts of Agriculture and Industry, both in Spain and internationally. Its target audience tended to be the peasantry and artisans.

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Anonymous manuscript

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

Professor David Bernabé Gil analysed an anonymous document among the papers of the University of Orihuela, which he dated approximately 1780. This text is a charge against the liberalising measures that were being put in place in the time of Carlos III. In the fragment of the text cited, three aspects were pointed out which needed to be rectified in Spain and which free trade was aggravating. The first concerns the situation of agriculture, which the author states should be promoted as a pillar of the state. This is the most tangible example of the persistence of a certain type of thinking linked to physiocracy, which pointed to agriculture as the main wealth of kingdoms and states. At the same time, the situation of the peasants was pointed out, whose life was one of misery and indebtedness, a situation that had favoured the merchants who had used free trade to exploit them and leave them in a situation of prostration. The second maxim was to strengthen local arts and crafts. To this end, he proposed raising prices so that they could find a place in the market (local and foreign) without having to resort to imports. In this way, the author understands that imports, apart from weakening local industry, serve foreign interests, normally associated with states that are enemies of the monarchy and that would benefit from Spanish money. As for the last problem, he pointed out the need to cut back on the huge profits of the clergy and the nobility. These privileged groups benefited from free trade by being able to sell grain at a good price, so their wealth had to be curtailed by cutting their rents or imposing taxes on their land.

The post Anonymous manuscript first appeared on History Lab.

Family and servants of a young farmer from Villarrobledo in 1753

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

In many occasions during the Modern Age servants were young and orphans. These situations made them completely dependent on their masters. Moreover, the work of the servants was often oriented according to their gender. The document shown here is an example of both. Juan Tomás Morcillo y Argumanes, of the general state and farmer, aged 36, married, has Francisca Gómez, single, aged 17 and an orphan, as his servant. He also has a labour servant: Juan Montejano, single, 20 years old. Gender roles are clearly shown by the fact that the woman is dedicated to service and care work and the man to farm work. Gender roles were not only reproduced by farmers, as in this case, but other social groups also showed the same behaviour towards servants.

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The post Family and servants of a young farmer from Villarrobledo in 1753 first appeared on History Lab.