The historiography shows that the impact of the agrarian crisis at the end of the 19th century on the social structure of the European rural world was complex and diverse. On the one hand, the fall in income from land favoured the diversification of landowners' investments and, in many cases, ...
(Show more)The historiography shows that the impact of the agrarian crisis at the end of the 19th century on the social structure of the European rural world was complex and diverse. On the one hand, the fall in income from land favoured the diversification of landowners' investments and, in many cases, the abandonment of the activity. This often resulted in downward social mobility. On the other hand, the situation allowed many peasants to gain access to land ownership.
In the Catalan case, many studies have provided examples in both directions. But we lack sufficiently ambitious analyses, chronologically and spatially, to provide more general insights into the social mobility in the rural world during that period
This research focuses on the main 150 large estates that, between 1875 and 1905, were auctioned in Catalonia as a result of judicial proceedings for unpaid debts. The aim is to systematically study their subsequent trajectory (were they finally sold? did they maintain their integrity or were they parcelled up? who acquired them?), as well as that of the families who had owned them. The number of cases analysed will make it possible to combine quantitative and qualitative approaches. First of all, the Land Registry, a source little frequented by social historians, will be used in order to monitor the estates concerned. Secondly, a prosopographical study of the indebted landowners and their descendants will be carried out to assess their pattern of social mobility.
Despite the intense process of industrialisation in Catalonia, the social groups related to agriculture and land ownership maintained an important weight. It is necessary to have a better understanding of their social dynamics, since behind them lie, in all likelihood, some of the causes of the conflicts experienced in Catalonia during the first third of the 20th century.
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