Publication: Technical change, labour absorption and living standards in Andalucía, 1886-1936
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1988
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Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Decanato
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Economic historians have specified the land problem in Spain as one of the reasons for the failure of the Second Republic and for the nation's bitter Civil War between 1936 and 1939.
They have especially singled out the region of Andalucia in the southern part of the country for the underutilization of its agricultural resources, concentration of landed property, and the poverty experienced by much of its rural population. If the economic rationality of pre-Civil War farming methods in Andalucia is now better understood, historians continue to emphasize the social costs, identifying the miserable conditions in which many agricultural laborers lived as the inevitable result of an extensive farming system with low wages and a highly seasonal employment demand. These conditions led an appreciable number of people to take an interest in radical politics, especially anarchism. But, whereas a number of historians have studied social protest, tracing both the development of coherent ideologies and organization of action against landlord or the state during the half century prior to the Civil War, little or no work has been done to show whether the plight of farm laborers improved or deteriorated during the same period. This article tries to remedy this gap In the literature by examining changes in the long run supply and demand for labor in agriculture. It then considers the implications of these changes on worker's living standards. The main conclusion is that, although rural poverty was acute, it is difficult to find evidence of it worsening over the 50 years prior to the 1936-1939 Civil War.
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BREAD PRICES. Averages for the provinces of Córdoba and Jaén as given in Conard, P. and Lovett, A. "Le prix du pain en Espagne, 1850-1930" In Melanges de la Casa de Velazquez (Madrid, 1969), vol.5, 436-39.
WHEAT PRICES. 1886-1906, average of the four prices as given in Sánchez-Albornoz, N. "Los precios agrícolas durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX" (Madrid: Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España, 1975), 162 and Grupo de Estudios de Historia Rural, Los precios del trigo y la cebada en España, 1891-1907 (Madrid: Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España, 1980), 185. For 1913-35, the figure is the national one given in París Eguilaz, H. El movimiento de precios en España (Madrid: CSIC 1943), 35.
OLIVE OIL. Sánchez-Albornoz, N. and Carnero, T. Los precios agricolas durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX. Vol 2. El vino y el aceite (Madrid: Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España, 1982), 181 and Grupo de Estudios de Historia Rural, Los precios del aceite y oliva en España, 1891-1916 (Madrid: Servicio de Estudios del Banco de España, 1981), 115. For 1890-1924, andaluz corriente quoted from the Memoria de la Camara de Comercio de Barcelona, in Instituto Geográfico y Estadistico, Anuario estadístico de España, 1920 (Madrid: 1922), vol.7, 190-92 and 1924/5 (Madrid: 1926), vol. 11, 286-87. For 1913-35, the figure is the national one given in París Eguilaz, H. el movimiento de precios, 41. When sources overlap, an average has been used.
WAGES. For years 1887-95 and 1891/2-1893/4, 1915/6 and 1921/2-1922/3 basad on two estates in Sevilla, as given in González Arteaga "Los salarios en Puebla del Río (Sevilla) durante la crisis finisecular (1887-1923)", in Revista de Historia Contemporánea, no. 2 dic. 1983, 125-45. For 1913-1931, wages for male workers in Cádiz, Córdoba and Jaén (maximum and minimum averaged), quoted in Anuario estadístico de España, different years.