Murcia - History Lab

Map of the cordon sanitaire in Orihuela for the plague of 1676

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:18 +0000

The plague was one of the diseases that most decimated the Spanish population. The XVII century was the worst hit in demographic terms in Orihuela, Alicante: with the plague of 1647-1652 the population was reduced from 12,200 inhabitants to around 7,000. Against this background, the new outbreak recorded in 1676 in the surrounding towns was met with greater sanitary prevention. The city of Orihuela was isolated to avoid contagion and the accumulation of grain and foodstuffs was encouraged in order to deal with the possible epidemic. The danger for this city was in the market gardens, as many farmers crossed the municipal boundaries in the direction of Murcia or Elche to illegally supply produce. Faced with the danger of them becoming infected and returning with the disease, the Board of Health ordered quarantines to be imposed on those people who had been in areas at risk. Finally, a more effective cordon sanitaire was imposed, with 4 lines, linking Orihuela with Alicante: the first 2 lines were intended to isolate the outbreaks in Murcia and Cartagena, passing through the Segura River, the third line isolated the municipality of Elche, while the fourth was aimed at cutting off the outbreaks coming from La Mancha. Between the 19 leagues of the cordon sanitaire, 56 surveillance posts were set up with more than 100 operatives and men on horseback, who were permanently patrolling the containment lines.

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Salzillo Nativity Scene

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:53 +0000

Central scene or Nativity of Salzillo’s Nativity Scene. A work from the final period of Francisco Salzillo, which was completed by his disciple Roque López at the end of the 18th century. It was commissioned by the Murcian nobleman Jesualdo Riquelme Fontes, for his palace. It is notable for its more than 500 figures, as well as animals and various architectures. The popular and aristocratic types stand out, a sample of Spanish society in the 18th century as a frame for the biblical scenes.

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Holders of bonds and the percentage of the bonds in Murcia (1544-1680)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:56 +0000

One of the forms of financing that the Hispanic monarchy had were the juros. The juros, or debt securities, consisted of private economic disbursements to the monarchy in order to obtain, in the medium and long term, returns from the royal institution. A predecessor of the current system of issuing public debt, it was the system used in Castile. The resource deals with the typology of holders of juros and their percentage amount as a group with respect to the total. We look at Murcia between 1544 and 1680, a period in which the number of juros rose from 20 to 133 (from 3,266,459 to 14,011,285 maravedíes). The growth of the Empire was accompanied by an increase in the issue of juros. Who were the holders? In all these years, merchants and businessmen were the main purchasers. Without belonging to the privileged classes, these wealthy men owned more than 80% of the land in 1544; the rest belonged to the nobility. As the century and the turn of the century progressed, more bonds were issued, with other institutions, such as the church, acquiring part of them. Thus, from 1560 onwards, the ecclesiastical organisation began to own juros in Murcia, although its share did not exceed 10% until the end of the 16th century, falling at the beginning of the 17th century and reaching its highest percentage of the total in 1680.

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Distribution by head of household of day labourers without property according to age group. Lorca, 1797

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

Social mobility within the group of day labourers without property is determined by the moment in the life cycle in which they find themselves and by the space in which the day labourer’s activity is carried out. The graph shows that in the city the level of social mobility is lower than in the countryside and, above all, than in the huerta. The municipality of Lorca (Murcia) is at an intermediate level due to its characteristics as an agro-city. In short, neighbourhood relations, familiarity, solidarity and proximity are closely related to this phenomenon, which is also linked to the economic conditions of the areas of activity.

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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.

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Evolution of prices per bushel of wheat (1700-1714)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:31 +0000

The Modern Age was marked by numerous food, economic, climatic, epidemiological and even war crises. In the latter case, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) left its mark on the price of a bushel of wheat. Between these years, we can see how in Murcia, Cuenca and Jaén the price per bushel of wheat fell at the beginning of the war and increased progressively as the battles reached the territories analysed. Murcia and Cuenca are the main exponents of the graph, with sharp rises between 1708 and 1710, while the north of Castile and Jaén increased to a lesser extent. The price of wheat directly affected bread, a basic product in the Spanish diet. In Cuenca, the corregidor declared an end to the bread shortage in 1714 due to the abundant harvest of that year. During this period, the general increase in prices, together with the military levy and mortality, the demographic structure was affected; fewer baptisms and the accentuation of social imbalances.

The post Evolution of prices per bushel of wheat (1700-1714) first appeared on History Lab.

Beneficiaries of the wills of the Murcian prebendaries (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The resource deals with the inheritance strategy of the prebendados of the cathedral of Murcia between 1743 and 1820. Despite what the ecclesiastical literature proposed (that the clergy’s assets should be destined to the Church and the poor), the high clergy of Murcia returned the benefits they obtained to their families. In fact, of the 46 wills studied, 52% (24 cases) had the clergyman’s family as the main beneficiary; 24% (11 cases) the Church; and another 24% the family-Church binomial. Overall, the burden of family obligations was the main motivation for making a will. The possible inheritance received and the patrimony to be ordained clergy subject to celibacy dispersed the family assets among the offspring; the return of the assets to the family meant, once again, the concentration of patrimony. However, the author warns, the tendency to put the family as the main beneficiary decreased by 9% compared to the period from 1591 to 1746.

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Typology of testamentary beneficiaries according to the groups of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Murcia (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

All the clergy did not have the same concerns or strategies of social reproduction. The resource shows us the differences in the wills of the cathedral chapter of Murcia between 1743 and 1820. Although there were common tendencies, such as favouring the family lineage through patrimony against the moralistic treatises of the Church, the strength with which these policies of inheritance transmission were perpetuated differed according to the ecclesiastical grade. The most family-conscious group in the chapter was the Dignities. The author identifies the trajectories of each of the members and reveals that, in contrast to the traditional idea of belonging to the nobiliary estate, and thus being imbued with the idea of lineage, the members were made up of families who had recently joined the local oligarchies in a process of social ascent. Their arrival in the upper strata gave rise to the need to consolidate their position there, so that nurturing the family through patrimony was one of their concerns. The rest of the groups, both canons and racioneros, also underwent this process. Many of these family estates led to the entry of another generation into the clerical estate, a fundamental issue within the strategies of social reproduction and perpetuation of the lineage.

The post Typology of testamentary beneficiaries according to the groups of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Murcia (1743-1820) first appeared on History Lab.

Amount and distribution of the mandas to the Church of the prebendados of the cathedral of Murcia (1743-1820)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

The concerns of the transmission of the patrimony for the members of the cathedral chapter of Murcia were their own families. Between 1743 and 1820, 52% of the main beneficiaries of the testamentary mandates of the chapter testify to this. However, the moralist treatises and the doctrine of the Church tried to ensure that the distribution favoured the ecclesiastical institution itself and the poor. How was the distribution and amount of the mandates for these items? As a minority with respect to the total inheritance, the main beneficiary was the cathedral factory with 37,700 reales. The hospital of San Juan de Dios also benefited with 13,220 reales and the Casa de la Misericordia with 9,870 reales. All these institutions had in common the assistance to the poor. Below 9,000 reales, we find ecclesiastical entities: convents, parishes or confraternities, the latter with the lowest contribution: 528.

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Fabrics registered in the shops of Murcia (1691-1692)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

At the end of the 17th century, with the beginning of the Nine Years’ War (1689) between Spain and France, a persecution of French goods, capital and subjects began throughout Spanish territory. In this situation, the smuggling judge Antonio de Torres Prieto visited Murcia and its commercial establishments to carry out a search of the goods present in them, focusing especially on the textile manufactures, thus focusing on their volume, typology and origin.
The source is not without its problems, as the possibility of merchants hiding part of their goods or manipulating the account books is constantly present, although it does provide key information on the stock of goods present in the establishments visited by the smuggling judge, and in order to try to be as accurate as possible, it also relies on the register of goods that entered and left through the customs office in Murcia.
From the visits to the shops in Murcia during the two-year period 1691 and 1692, some forty establishments, it can be shown that 66.3% corresponded to articles made of vegetable fibres (linen, hemp and cotton), 9.6% to silk goods and 23.3% to woollen goods, in keeping with the climatic conditions of the region and the city. The question to be dealt with here is the number of pieces found, since at no point is the question of whether they were sufficient to cover the needs of the inhabitants of Murcia and its immediate surroundings, who had been accustomed for some years to French textile manufactures.

The post Fabrics registered in the shops of Murcia (1691-1692) first appeared on History Lab.