León - History Lab

Goods bought in rural auction houses in León according to the socio-professional category of the buyers (1700-1850)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:25 +0000

Thanks to the sale of the Leonese almonedas of the 18th century and first half of the 19th century, the socio-professional category of the buyers can be analysed and the typology of the goods acquired by each of these groups during the proceedings of these public second-hand markets can also be ascertained.
The consumption of these pre-industrial societies remains a question that is gradually coming to light, especially through the documentation contained in the postmortem inventories, as well as the way in which these neighbours came into possession of the goods contained in them. These elements are even more characteristic of the rural world, with documentation that has fewer records but which also shows the interest in basic consumer products, far removed from those related to luxury, which could be found more in the cities.
All in all, rural peasant families went to the auctions in search of livestock for 63.6% of the total value of purchases, followed by farm implements with 8.4%, that is to say, means and tools that were essential for their agricultural economies. In the case of parish priests, 52.3% of the purchases were for personal clothing and almost 23% for household furniture. The trend of acquiring personal clothing is also followed by priests and the rest of the neighbours whose profession is not specified, looking more specifically for clothes belonging to deceased clergy.

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Evolution of wheat prices in Early Modern Spain

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

During the Modern Age, the availability of food was, to a large extent, a determining factor in the standard of living of the population. One of the great economic efforts for most families was the acquisition of the food necessary for survival, with cereals, especially wheat, and bread, accounting for between 65 and 70% of current expenditure. Because of its importance, the demand for wheat tended to be inelastic. Consequently, changes in its price marked the rise and fall of living standards. At the regional level, the behaviour of the price of wheat showed divergences depending on whether one lived in the centre or on the coast of the peninsula. While the price fluctuation was greater in the Meseta, the coastal areas, with their international trade routes, showed less variation. Thus, throughout the modern period, Barcelona and Valencia had lower prices than in Castilla la Nueva, Segovia or León. Periods of crisis were also important. In Castilla la Nueva, price volatility conditioned the market every 9.8 years; in Andalusia every 10.6 years; in Segovia every 14.1 years; in Navarre every 36.8 years; in Valencia every 38.4 years and in Barcelona every 69 years. Climatic disturbances also affected markets with less international trade capacity. However, from the beginning of the 16th century until the end of the 18th century, the common price tended to fall in parallel with the process of integration of the peninsular markets, a process which, although timid during the first two centuries of modernity, increased with the actions of the Enlightenment reformers.

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Neighbours, families and secular inhabitants according to the Cadastre of Ensenada (1752)

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

The Cadastre of the Marquis de la Ensenada, carried out in the middle of the 18th century in the Crown of Castile, is one of the main historical sources for the study of demography, economy and territory. It consisted of several books dealing with numerous aspects; the resource shown here corresponds to the Neighbourhood and Census books. By regions, the territories of Andalusia had 1,462,449 inhabitants, Old Castile and León had 1,988,698, New Castile, including Madrid, had 1,040,972, Extremadura had 373,022 inhabitants, while Galicia and Murcia had 1,299312 and 272,057 respectively. A total of approximately 6,436,510 inhabitants for the Crown, where the most populated provinces were Seville (694,771), León (563,689) and Granada (545,285); those with the fewest inhabitants were Zamora (62,304), Toro (79,212) and Ávila (98,873).

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Amount in reals of free goods transmitted to the children of the León nobility according to gender

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

The resource deals with the hereditary strategy of the town councillors of the city of León during the 18th and half of the 19th century. The author shows how a first-born child, male or female, was favoured to the detriment of the other offspring. Thus, we can see that the amounts of free designation received by the lucky ones could be up to three times that of the rest of the siblings. However, in most cases, the amounts of difference were modest: with the legitimate share balanced, the free disposal assets hardly represented a significant contribution.

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Inheritance of free goods to the sons of the León nobility (Aldermen of the city of León)

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

The transmission of property through inheritance was one of the most effective family policies for laying the foundations of social reproduction. The Castilian inheritance system provided the testator with the flexibility to distribute his property equally or to accumulate in one individual a large part of the estate to be inherited. However, the form of inheritance was closely related to the amount of assets at the testator’s disposal. In the case of the noble rulers of the city of León, the sons received 82.4% of the total amounts transmitted by the legitimate; the remaining 17.6% was destined to improvements. Within the improvements, the Quinto de mejora and the Tercio de libre disposición went to a single heir. Although with modest amounts, the Leonese nobility tended to prioritise the unequal transmission of the property, favouring a first-born to avoid its atomisation. The present resource is a sample of the social practices and the differentiated mentality, with a material basis, which was rooted in the different social profiles.

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