Rabassaires, formiguers and caganers: comparing two nutrient balances c.1860 and c.1920 in the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula

Elena Galán del Castillo ()

Documentos de Trabajo de la Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria from Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria

Abstract: Understanding the replacement of the nutrients removed by harvests helps us understand the influence of humans on fertility. In this paper we compare two previous studies on the nutrient balance of the cropland area in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, which run circa 1860 and 1920. Although in this region livestock densities per cropland area were insufficient to balance the extraction of three macronutrients—N, P and K—, a diverse range of fertilising sources managed to reach equilibrium at regional level. The vineyard played a key role, not because of the great area occupied, but by its relatively low nutrient requirements. Albeit due to the availability of historical sources the scale of analysis differs, the comparison of the two cases shows two different steps of the Socio-Ecological Transition of agricultural metabolism. Finally, the results take us to consider the relationship between fertility and inequality in the highly polarized Catalan rural world at the late nineteenth century.

Keywords: Social Metabolism; Socio-Ecological Transition; Regional Nutrients Balance; Industrial Agriculture; Agricultural Change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 I12 I31 N33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2014-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-his
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