Producción - History Lab

Sanded agriculture on Lanzarote: vineyards

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

The expansion of vineyards on the island of Lanzarote took place in the mid-18th century. After the episodes of volcanic eruptions in the 1730s, the planting of grapes gained strength on the island with the productive restructuring that took place; the must was boosted and was destined for the production of brandy, which was sold in the American territories of Spain. But what was the system used to make the grapes withstand the climatic conditions? Lapilli”, small fragments of lava thrown up by volcanoes. This material captures the ambient humidity and transfers it to the mantle of the topsoil, providing water in environments with scarce rainfall. The procedure was as follows: they dug holes to plant the vine in the ground and covered the hole with lapilli and, at the top, surrounded the cleft with dry stone to avoid extreme heat temperatures. In this way, vineyards proliferated in Lanzarote, reaching a value of 1,429,491 reales at the end of the 18th century.

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Sanded agriculture on Lanzarote: water crops

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

The volcanoes, although they caused destruction and losses of cereals and livestock, brought about new forms of agriculture using volcanic materials. On the island of Lanzarote, following the eruption of the volcano in the 1730s, a process of agricultural transformation took place. The technique of sanding, which consisted of covering the soil with a layer to buffer the climatic conditions, found its maximum expression on the island with “lapilli”, a volcanic material with a hygroscopic effect (accumulation of ambient humidity). With this method, the soil was covered with lapilli, where the seeds were planted, and ploughed. With the volcanic material, the scarce autumn rains were sufficient to irrigate crops that required water, such as vegetables, pulses or potatoes.

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International maritime wax production and trade around 1800

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

Spanish pastoral beekeeping during the Modern Age was one of the most advanced beekeeping systems in Europe. The seasonal movement of hives became widespread in Spain in the early modern period; other countries such as France had to wait until the end of the 18th century to experience the necessary conditions for the development of the beekeeping sector. As a result, the amount of honey and wax collected increased. The resource shows the production of wax, marked on the map with cross lines, and its distribution throughout Europe and the western Mediterranean. In Spain, the main beekeeping areas were the regions of Galicia, Extremadura, the north and Mediterranean coast of Andalusia, the south and centre of Aragon, the Valencian coast, the north of Majorca, Murcia and parts of La Mancha. Waxes came to the Peninsula from the Netherlands, the Maghreb and the French region of Landes; however, due to the wars of the Revolution and the French Empire, trade channels were affected.

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Harvest threshing machine

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

Throughout the Modern Age, agriculture was one of the main sectors of the economy. Especially from the 16th century onwards, it experienced significant growth as a result of the increase in population. Agricultural expansion was evident both in the increase in cereal land and in the prosperity of vineyards. After the 17th century, which saw a certain economic decline in various areas, the 18th century saw a resumption of growth that was accompanied by a series of agricultural reforms, promoted by the Enlightenment, which sought to modernise the structures of land ownership and tenure and to increase agricultural production. The image shows a machine used for threshing crops, a process used to remove the grain from the straw on land where cereal crops were grown.

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Collection of the Bolla Tax in Barcelona (1599-1695)

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

The so-called “derecho de bolla” was an indirect tax applied to all goods sold in Catalonia during the 16th century until 1769. Within the Catalan market, the textile industry was an important sector. The graph shows a decrease in the collection of the bolla tax from 1599 to 1695. Undoubtedly, as the author points out, the decline of the Catalan textile sector meant lower revenues. The industry of this product lost competitiveness as a result of the counterfeiting that took place, both in the fabric and in the dyes. This was compounded by the massive influx of fabrics from central and northern Europe. Even with margins for modernisation of the sector, the “War of Separation or the War of the Reapers” between 1640 and 1659, with the incorporation of Catalonia into French sovereignty after the betrayal of the Catalan elites to the Spanish Monarchy, led to the numerous imports of French products into this territory, increasing the level of tax collection of the bolla duty despite the detriment of the local product. The demographic decline also led to lower consumption and production; nevertheless, the level of tax collection was bicephalic. Thus, the level of consumption was just as important as the effective collection capacity of the authorities, a capacity that led to collection problems due to political and social instability.

The post Collection of the Bolla Tax in Barcelona (1599-1695) first appeared on History Lab.

Silver production, expressed in thousands of marks (Augsburg weight) at the main European silver mines (1500-1550).

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

In the mid-15th century, a number of circumstances seem to have come together to bring about general economic development. In that period, the population grew at a faster rate, a series of needs arose in the princely courts, which were driven by the Renaissance spirit, the great nation states developed and wars required arms and precious metals. All this was combined with the great overseas expansion of the Iberian peoples. Between 1470 and 1540, the demand for precious metals for minting and sustaining military conflicts reached an all-time high. The second period of flourishing, centred on the 16th century, appeared in a different form from those previously mentioned. The mining fever had a capitalist and monopolistic character, stimulated by monarchs and princes with specific needs. However, it should be noted that the mining companies attracted large amounts of capital from Nuremberg, Magdeburg, Dresden, Augsburg or Cologne, where the princes also played an important role in these investments. At the beginning of the 16th century, massive capital investments appeared for the first time, reaching peak production in Bohemia in the years 1520-1540.

The post Silver production, expressed in thousands of marks (Augsburg weight) at the main European silver mines (1500-1550). first appeared on History Lab.

Price of wheat and price of barley in 17th century Spain (Annual averages)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

The post Price of wheat and price of barley in 17th century Spain (Annual averages) first appeared on History Lab.

Wheat prices and wine prices in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

Different considerations have been made about the evolution of the Spanish economy during the 17th century, in which the existence of a generalised and prolonged crisis in the Spain of the misnamed minor Habsburgs was acknowledged. However, during that period the number of active people did not fall, agricultural production had precisely to register a downward trend, where there was a “hidden unemployment” and the decrease in the cultivated area allowed the average quality of the cultivated land to improve and the breeding of livestock to expand. In this sense, it would have to be admitted that in Castilla la Nueva the trend in relative prices not only justified the planting of vines on “bread and butter” land during the first half of the 17th century, but encouraged just the opposite. The Rioja wine price series is much more reliable, as it relates the prices achieved on the market for a homogeneous product. In the period 1618-1628, the behaviour of the terms of trade significantly encouraged the planting of vines at the expense of arable land. In the first half of the 17th century, the movement of prices did not cause a significant change in the composition of the agricultural product, tending to increase the share of wine at the expense of cereals.

The post Wheat prices and wine prices in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) first appeared on History Lab.

Price of wheat and price of meat in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:02 +0000

Different considerations have been made about the evolution of the Spanish economy during the 17th century, in which the existence of a generalised and prolonged crisis in the Spain of the misnamed minor Habsburgs was acknowledged. However, during that period the number of active people did not fall, agricultural production had precisely to register a downward trend, where there was a “hidden unemployment” and the decrease in the cultivated area allowed the average quality of the cultivated land to improve and the breeding of livestock to expand. The price of meat increased during the first half of the 17th century. Taking the terms of trade of the 1570s as a reference point, the trajectory of the terms of trade is not so favourable for meat producers. The behaviour of relative prices was not a sufficient condition for the emergence of important stimuli to expand cattle breeding, since the growth in operating costs led to a decrease in profits. In this sense, the area of communal pastures, due to ploughing, deforestation, enclosures and vineyard plantations, fell sharply in the second half of the 16th century and, most probably, in the first third of the 18th century. This led, as contemporaries reported, to an intense upward movement in the price of herbs between 1550 and 1630. Given the high percentage of production costs, it is likely that the balance sheets of the herds tended to worsen. The demand for meat plummeted in Old Castile in the first half of the 17th century, due to the decline in population, the deep crisis in the cities and economic difficulties in general, and the rise in the price of meat is a testimony to the depression of the cattle ranching industry.

The post Price of wheat and price of meat in 17th century Spain (annual averages expressed in index numbers) first appeared on History Lab.

Craftsmen. Individuals and rents in Ecija in the mid-18th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:28:57 +0000

The growth of Ecija led it to become a town of second rank within the southern urban network, serving as a connecting element between the large cities and the rural areas. Despite the importance of the agricultural sector, where craftsmen were involved in the processing of cotton introduced at the beginning of the 18th century in the market gardens, the craftsmen made up an important group divided into nine sectors. In order to determine the overall data, the table shows the total income of each sector, taking into account the annual salaries at a rate of 120 days per year, the yield of the artisans’ shops (if any) and the machinery (mills, ovens, fulling mills, presses…). The largest contingent is that of workers in the textile sector, which represents 32.05%, followed by extractive works with 19.64% and tanneries with 12.13%. These three sub-sectors account for two thirds of the workers, although their labour importance does not exactly correspond to their contribution to the sector’s income. Despite the high level reached by the textile industry in the 17th century, during the 18th century it experienced a certain decline. During the 17th century, due to competition from foreign cloth, the textile manufactures in cities such as Seville and Cordoba moved to rural areas, free of guild restrictions, which meant that contracting conditions were freer. From the first decades of the 18th century, urban industries were reactivated thanks to the regenerated Indian trade.

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