Precios - History Lab

Shortage of wheat in Lérida increases the price of bread (1797)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:11 +0000

At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Aragon suffered a cereal shortage. The supply decreased, and the Audiencia of Aragon prohibited the export of grain to cities such as Lérida, Tárrega and Balaguer. As a result, the price of bread rose in these territories, forcing the corregidor of Lleida to ask the Council of Castile to allow the little grain that remained to be extracted. The fin-de-siècle crises joined the administrative borders, hindering the distribution of basic resources. The document, dated 1797, refers to this phenomenon and to the inclement weather that reduced the harvest in March due to snow and ice.

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The post Shortage of wheat in Lérida increases the price of bread (1797) first appeared on History Lab.

Pasquines threatening the Governor of Cartagena over the price of bread (1766)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:11 +0000

The increase in prices in Cartagena in the middle of the 18th century provoked unrest among the population. Some people sent a letter to the Governor of the city asking him to reduce the price of foodstuffs, on pain of being “burnt and fried in boiling oil”. The document then continues with the news that the following day bread was sold for eight quarters, made of water and flour; there would be enough for everyone.

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Increase of bakers to prevent a riot in Palencia (1766)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:11 +0000

In the second half of the 18th century, the price of bread increased in many Spanish cities. The unrest among the population meant that the authorities tried to take measures to avoid riots. In Palencia, we know that in 1766, the corregidor José Firmat informed the Count of Aranda (president of the Council) of the increase in the number of bakers with ovens paid for by the Town Council in order to avoid riots. The date of the document, 22 April, only foretold the riot that took place a day later in the city, where gangs of young men asked for a reduction in the price of foodstuffs, which was immediately granted by the mayor.

The post Increase of bakers to prevent a riot in Palencia (1766) first appeared on History Lab.

General tariff of prices and positions of Madrid in 1795

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:14 +0000

In the Modern Age, a tariff could be understood as a monetary levy on passing through specific customs offices, or as the price at which goods were to be sold, and in our case, the general tariff referred to here refers to the latter concept. In our case, the general tariff referred to here refers to the latter concept. How many types of tariffs were there? There were two types of tariffs: specific, for each specific shop, and general, for each population centre. The latter served to establish a general framework of prices and positions of the shops in the locality. They were printed weekly and variations were noted in them. The products subject to this type of control ranged from vegetables, butter and meat to brooms. The marked prices could not be exceeded by the shops under their jurisdiction; otherwise, they were threatened with a penalty “in proportion to their excess”.

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Certificate of position with unfilled food prices. Toledo, 1760.

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:14 +0000

The Modern Age concept of tariff that we have here refers to the price at which goods are sold, not to the economic levy on them after passing through customs. The “cédulas de postura” were specific templates that sellers used to set the prices of the products they had for sale. This price was “prefixed” with a tariff that guaranteed the stability of the price range over long periods. This example of an unfilled cédula was placed in the shop or trading post in a visible manner. Each type of shop had its own ticket adapted to the goods on offer. It shows fruit products (pears, plums, peaches, etc.), spices (saffron, oregano, coriander, etc.) and products of animal origin and treatment (cheeses). Selling prices could not exceed those marked on the certificate, under penalty of being punished. Were all types of certificates and tariffs like this? Without prejudice to the example shown, there were several different models of documents depending on whether they were general (municipality level) or specific (shop).

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Moderation of prices of all tradable goods… (1680)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:31:09 +0000

The control of prices in the supply market or shops was determined by the town councils and the government. In the city of Toledo, a printed document was published entitled Moderación de precios de todos géneros comerciables, hecha en virtud de Real Provisión de su Magestad, y señores de su Real Consejo, por la Imperial Ciudad de Toledo. Year 1680, which established the control of non-food manufactured goods. Subsequently, the articulated control system evolved towards more specific positions, such as the so-called “shop tariffs” where each shop had its own stipulated price.

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Bread price regulation system in Madrid (1498)

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

The bread trade was the most important in the food markets. The city of Madrid had systems of intervention to ensure the supply of this staple foodstuff; a policy that went beyond municipal boundaries and became a matter of state as urban demand increased. In 1498, a municipal ordinance was published in Madrid for its supply, establishing a direct relationship between the price of bread and the price of flour. The resource shows the system of regulating prices according to tables of equivalence, values which did not result in a greater range of profits for the baker. In fact, while the sale of bread was regulated by controlled prices, the acquisition of raw materials cost more and, although profits were obtained, profits were lower in order to ensure a distribution that could be afforded by the working classes, whose spending on the acquisition of this product was the main item of family expenditure.

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Average value of arms in Burgos households, 18th century

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

The possession of weapons in the city of Burgos during the 18th century reveals that, although they were in the minority, they were stored in those households with the greatest social preeminence. The author provides us with a resource based on the average value of firearms and bladed weapons. There is no surprise when it comes to establishing the relationship between the socio-professional categories of households and the price of the artefacts they owned: from the spinners of Burgos to the nobility, passing through farmers, artisans, merchants, public services, bureaucrats and clerics, the price is shown to be ascending in the social stratification. Special mention should be made of the military who, because of their profession, had expensive equipment far removed from ordinary weapons. If we follow this ascending process as a whole, we observe divergences in terms of the basic armament category: the highest price of court weapons predominates in the artisan, merchant and militia groups, while firearms predominate in the nobility, clerics, bureaucrats, public services and farmers, although the latter account for a very insignificant percentage of the sample. The price of the weaponry reveals its quality: poor, functional but frugal shotguns for the humblest strata compared to the luxurious weapons of the wealthy classes, either in terms of their material quality or their ornamentation. In short, the post-mortem inventories reveal shotguns, pistols, blunderbusses, swords, rapiers and sabres well differentiated in quantity, quality and effectiveness, distributed in a hierarchical manner.

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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.

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Professions of the husbands and fathers of the brides of Lower Extremadura (17th century)

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

The wife brought to the marriage, either by herself or other persons on her behalf, a series of assets from the paternal surplus, which constituted the anticipation of a legitimate inheritance received at the time of the constitution of a new family. It was the husband who received the assets and, on the other hand, became the administrator of them with the obligation to return them to the heirs or the wife herself in the event of divorce or death of the husband. These goods delivered could appear with the estimate of the prices -estimated price- or without it, indicating only the description of the goods. As for the male professions, labourers are owners of land and livestock in large quantities, while cangueros are small taxpayers with little land and a few animals. Day labourers did not own agricultural real estate and worked for wages. The artisans, on the other hand, have all the distributions made during the 17th century as small taxpayers satisfying local needs. On the other hand, the graduates are those people in the service sector who needed certain studies in order to exercise their profession. 72% of marriages took place between families with the same qualifications, and this was more pronounced among farmers (84%). Along with wealth, there were two hierarchies of power: the possession of council posts and cleanliness of blood. Honour, power and wealth go hand in hand, as all the mayors and councillors who appear in the letters of dowry fall into the category of peasants, as do those who declare their nobility.

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