Agriculture in Europe's little divergence: the case of Spain

Carlos Álvarez Nogal, Leandro Prados de la Escosura () and Carlos Santiago Caballero
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Carlos Santiago-Caballero and Carlos Álvarez-Nogal ()

IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola

Abstract: This paper explores the role of agriculture in Spain's contribution to the little divergence in Europe. On the basis of tithes collected by historians over the years, long-run trends in agricultural output are drawn. After a long period of relative stability, output suffered a severe contraction during 1570-1590, followed by milder deterioration to 1650. Output per head moved from a relatively high to a low path that persisted until the Peninsular War. The demand contraction, resulting from the collapse of domestic markets, monetary instability, and war in Iberia, helps to explain a less intensive use of labour and land as incentives to produce for the market sharply diminished. Agricultural output per head moved along population up to 1750. This finding confirms the view of Spain as a land abundant frontier economy. Only in the late eighteenth century a Malthusian pattern emerged.

Keywords: Agriculture; Little; divergence; Early; modern; Spain; Tithes; Output; per; head (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N53 O13 Q10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-gro and nep-his
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Working Paper: Agriculture in Europe's Little Divergence: The Case of Spain (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cte:whrepe:wp15-07

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