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Transportation and Economic Stagnation in Eighteenth-Century Castile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

David R. Ringrose
David R. Ringrose
Affiliation:
Rutgers, The State University
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Extract

Since at least the seventeenth century the economic development of Spain has been limited because the rates of growth achieved in the peripheral areas of Catalonia, Valencia, and Vizcaya were greater than that of the interior under the old Crown of Castile. The stagnation of the Castilian interior not only created a dull market for manufactured goods, but conserved a persistently strong traditionalist faction which long hampered Spanish political development. The resulting tension between the interior and the more modern peripheral sectors of society dominates Spanish history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1968 , pp. 51 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1968

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References

1 Castile used in this context refers to the traditional regions of Cantabria, Old Castile, León, New Castile, Extremadura, Murcia, and Andalucia, all of which were holdings of the Crown of Castile as opposed to the Crown of Aragón.

2 Way, Ruth, in A Geography of Spain and Portugal (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1962)Google Scholar, provides a convenient and recent summary of the subject of Spanish topography. Any other information in sec. I which is not supported in the footnotes may be found in such general accounts as Herr, Richard, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958)Google Scholar and Sarrailh, Jean, L'Espagne Eclairée [Spain during the Enlightenment] (Paris: 1954)Google Scholar. The latter is also available in Spanish as La España llustrada (Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 1956)Google Scholar. See also Vives, Jaime Vicens, Historia de España y América, Vol. IV, Burguesía, Industrialización, Obrerismo (Barcelona: Editorial Vicens Vives, 1961)Google Scholar.

3 Pidal, Gonzalo Menéndez, in Los Caminos en la historia de España [Roads in the history of Spain] (Madrid: Instituto de Cultura Hispánica, 1951)Google Scholar, gives some background on transport and roads.

4 Ford, Richard, Handbook for Spain, 1845 (London: Centaur Press, 1966. This is a three-volume reprint of the 1845 edition.) In Vol. I, p. 77Google Scholar he says the royal roads were “drawn in a straight line … with many of the most ancient cities … left out. The wide extent of the country is most indifferently provided with public means of inter-communication … “

5 Vives, Vicens, Historia, IV, 8–10Google Scholar.

6 The documentation of these transfers is an extensive matter, since the core of the data for these trade patterns consists of over 800 specific references to goods transfers, most of them derived from the Catastro of 1752 as found in AGS (Archivo General de Simancas), Catastro, libs. 1-670. The details and specific citations are presented in Chapter ii of my as yet unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Land Transportation in Eighteenth-Century Castile (typescript, Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1966)Google Scholar.

7 On roads, see footnote 4. On canals see , Ford, Handbook, II, 955Google Scholar;Townsend, Joseph, A Journey Through Spain, 1786-1787 (3 vols.; London: 1791), I, 209–15, 366-70Google Scholar; and Comte Laborde, Alexandra de, Voyage Pittoresque et Historique de l'Espagne, in Revue Hispanique, Vol. 63 (1928), p. 172Google Scholar.

8 Archivo del Ayuntamiento, Murcia, leg. 2795, provincial census of vehicles of 1755; Archivo del Ayuntamiento, Cartagena, Rente, 1696.

9 , Ford, Handbook, I, 59Google Scholar;MacKenzie, Alexander, A Year in Spain by a Young American (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1829), p. 176Google Scholar.

10 Among the exceptions to this generalization were about thirty Cabañiles in the southeast with mule trains of over one hundred animals and a number of pack-mule enterprises in León and Salamanca provinces with ten to twenty-five animals. AHN (Archivo Histdrico Nadonal) Consejos, leg. 1242; AGS, Catastro, lib. 275—Granada; and Galindo, José Luís Martín, Arrieros maragatos en el siglo XVIII [The muleteers of Western León in the eighteenth century] (Valladolid: C.S.I.C., 1956), pp. 9–10Google Scholar.

11 AGS, Catastro, libs. 361—León: San Pedro de las Dueiias; 622—Toledo: Torrejón de Ardoz;.AGS, Secretaría de Guerra, leg. 416; Glover, Michael, Peninsular Preparation (London: Macmillan, 1961), p. 96Google Scholar;Tascón, Antonio Matilla, Historia de las minas de Almaddén, Vol. I (Madrid: Ministerio de Hacienda, 1958), p. 76Google Scholar.

12 Vives, Vicens, Historia, IV, 159–225.Google Scholar For examples of seasonal variations see monthly figures for C6rdoba for 1753-1758, 1763-1765, 1766-1768, and 1779 in the Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Córdoba, sección 5, serie 40, caja 26, docs. 23, 29, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37; and also for Seville for the years 1768-1799, 1802, 1804, and 1806 in the Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Seville, sección 2 (Contaduría), carpetas 243, 285-88, 290-92, 326-27.

13 The Catastro was an extensive survey of the wealth and income of Castile made in 1747-1752. The 670 volumes of replies to the Catastro questionnaire (AGS, Catastro, libs. 1-670), are a rich source of details for the patient researcher.

14 Examples of numbers of trips include: AGS, Catastro, libs. 76—Cuenca: Alcalá del Rio Júcar; 335—León: Taliba de Arriba y de Abajo: 369—León: Llanes; 629—Toro: various towns; 546—Segovia: El Escorrial; 135—Extremadura: Alberca; 18—Burgos: Cantabrana; 7—Ávila: Piedralaves. For variations in value: Angel Cabo Alonso, “La Armuiia y su evoluci6n econ6mica,” Estudios Geogrdficos, num. 58 (1955), pp. 121-22; AGS, Catastro, libs. 367—León: Langres; 384—León: Villa-franca; 457—Madrid: Val de Santo Domingo. For examples indicating time per year: libs. 100—Cuenca: Vindel; 137—Extremadura: Casas de Palmero; 44—Burgos: Herbosa; 275—Granada: Alquije; 9—Avila: Cebreros.

15 AHN, Sección de Hacienda, lib. 8038, fol. 349; Novíssima Recopilación, lib. 7, tit. 28, note 2 to leyes 1-4.

16 Martin Galindo, pp. 9-10, 11, 15, 21-23; AGS, Catastro, lib. l—Ávila: Ávila.

17 The references are derived from AGS, Catastro, libs. 1-670. The author hopes to publish a larger work presenting this in more detail.

18 For additional detail, see Ortiz, Antonio Dominguez, La Sociedad espanola en el sigh XVIII (Madrid: CSIC, 1955), pp. 55–76Google Scholar;Vives, Vicens, Historia, IV, 8–16Google Scholar.

19 For a discussion of the phenomenon in the context of the sixteenth century in Castile, see Silva, José Gentil da, En Espagne, développement économique, subsistance, déclin (Paris: Mouton, 1965), pp. 1–57.Google Scholar The conditions described could not have been greatly different in the eighteenth century.

20 AHN, Consejos, legs. 11452 (1787). and 49240 (1773).

21 AHN, Cleros, lib. 10541. Transport costs were usually included in the price paid for the commodity involved.

22 Hamilton, Earl J., War and Prices in Spain, 1651-1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), Appendix I, “Commodity Prices in New Castile,” p. 252Google Scholar.

23 AHN, Consejos, leg. 11452.

24 , Hamilton, War and Prices, p. 252Google Scholar; and Censo de la riqueza territorial y industrial de Esparto en el arxo, 1799, formado de orden superior (Madrid: Ministerio de Hacienda, 1960)Google Scholar.

25 , Hamilton, War and Prices, p. 252Google Scholar; and Encyclopedia Universal Ilustrada (Barcelona: Espasa, 1924)Google Scholar, Vol. 64, article “Trigo,” Vol. 6, article “Arroba,” Vol. 25, article “Fanega.” These calculations are supported by J. C. La Force, who notes that trans-port from the coast amounted to 10 percent of raw materials costs at the Avila factory. See Force, James Clayburn La Jr, The Development of the Spanish Textile Industry, 1750-1800 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), p. 49Google Scholar.

26 AGS, Catastro, libs. 1-670 (see also footnote 6); Vicens Vives, Historia, IV, 161.

27 Pidal, Menéndez, Los Caminos, pp. 56, 76–78Google Scholar;Orden, José Tudela de la, “La Cabana de carreteros” [The Association of Carters], in Homenaje a Don Ramdn Carande (Madrid: Sociedad de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1963), pp. 357–58Google Scholar; and AGS, Catastro, lib. 14—Burgos: Palacios de la Sierra.

28 AHN, Conseps, leg. 230-6; AGS, Secretaria de Guerra, leg. 416; Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Navarredonda de la Sierra (Ávila), Libro de Acuerdos, 1775; and Matilla, Minas de Almadén, p. 160.

29 AHN, Conseps, legs. 2229-31; 11452; Archivo del Duque de Medinaceli (Seville), Estado de Medinaceli, leg. 60-83; and Tudela, “La Cabaña,” p. 378.

30 This varied between provinces from 1.49 in Granada to 4.96 in Burgos and 7.33 in Soria. Taken from statistics derived from AGS, Catastro, libs. 1-670.

31 AGS, Catastro, libs. 114—Burgos: Ontoria del Pinar; 137—Extremadura: Cá-ceres; AHN, Consejos, legs. 211-3; 1111-11, pts. 1 and 3; 1733-24; 2659-27; 2868-25; 51197-50, 61; and Tudela, “La Cabaña,” pp. 355-59, 385-87.

32 AHN, Sección de Hacienda, lib. 8038, fol. 351.

33 AHN, Consejos, leg. 1608-3; AGS, Catastro, lib. 14—Burgos: Ontoria del Pinar; Tudela, “La Cabaña,” p. 357; and Adela Gil Crespo, “La Evolución económica de Requena y su comarca,” in Estudios Geogróficos, num. 59 (1953), p. 59.

34 AHN, Seccuón de Hacienda, lib. 8038, fob. 355 &.; and Klein, Julius, The Mesta (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920), pp. 22–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

35 AHN, Colección de Reales CMulas, tomo II, doc. 68; AHN, Clews, lib. 707; and AHN, Consejos, legs. 395-9, 1608-1.

36 Novíssima Recopihción, lib. 7, tit. 28, leyes 3, 4.

37 AGS, Cámara de Castilla, expediente 1831; Novissima Recopilación, lib. 7, tit. 28, ley 5.

38 Novíssima Recopilación, ibid., AHN, Consejos. legs. 1555-2; 2229-31.

39 Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Navarredonda, Libro de Acuerdos, 1747, 1766; AHN, Consejos, legs. 2293-4; 2733-24; 2016-17; AHN, Consejos, lib. 1416, jol. 151; , Matilla, Minas de Almadén, pp. 132–33Google Scholar; and , Tudela, “La Cabana,” pp. 354–55Google Scholar.

40 Ortiz, Domínguez, El Siglo XVIII, pp. 55–76Google Scholar.

41 For 1826, MacKenzie, A Year in Spain, p. 104; for 1840, , Ford, Handbook, III, p. 1088Google Scholar.

42 AHN, Consejos, leg. 923-31.

43 AGS, Hacienda, Direccidn General de Rentas, 2a Remesa, leg. 4894.

44 For a discussion of this idea, see Hobsbawm, E. J., Primitive Rebels (New York: Norton, 1965)Google Scholar, especially ch. vii on preindustrial cities such as Naples; then consider the Squilace riots of 1766.

45 AHN, Consejos, legs. 923-31; 1184-26; 11452; 49248; Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Murcia, leg. 2795.

46 Atard, Vicente Palacio, El Comercio de Castillo, y el puerto de Santander en el sigh XVIII (Madrid: 1960), pp. 83–86Google Scholar.

47 AGS, Catastro, lib. 14—Burgos: Ontoria del Pinar.

48 Atard, Palacio, El Comercio, pp. 166–80Google Scholar.

49 AGS, Catastro, lib. 14—Burgos: Ontoria del Pinar.

50 The figure for Madrid is derived from the fact that the commodities in Table 6 represented about 600,000 animal-loads of capacity. Since a cart carried four to five times as much as an animal, the ratio of carts to animals as given in 1784 suggests that about 350,000 animal-loads came on animals, the remainder filling roughly 55,000 cartloads of capacity. The wool-trade figure is based on Palacio Atard, El Comercio, p. 83.

51 Ortiz, Domínguez, El Sigh XVIII, pp. 55–76Google Scholar.

52 AHN, Consejos, legs. 1843-2; 49240; Archivo del Ayuntamiento of Murcia, leg. 2795; and Vicens Vives, Historia, IV, 160.

53 Atard, Palacio, El Comercio, p. 83Google Scholar.

54 AHN, Consejos, legs. 1184-26; 2491-3; 49240.

55 AHN, Consejos, legs. 11452; 49248.

56 , Hamilton, War and Trices, p. 157Google Scholar.

57 Evidenced by various assault and battery cases and two homicides arising from pasture disputes in the 1790's. AHN, Consejos, legs. 1555-2; 1604-13; 2306-23; 51197-22.

58 Atard, Palacio, El Comercio, pp. 83–86Google Scholar.

59 AHN, Consejos, leg. 2868-25; and Klein, The Mesta, chapters on the eighteenth century.

60 AHN, Consejos, leg. 1608-1.

61 AHN, Consejos, leg. 49240.