Landowners and cooperativism. The Agricultural Chamber of Igualada and industrial production of wine alcohol (1908-1930)

Abstract

The Agricultural Chamber ofIgualada was one of the most active chambers of agriculture that were created in Spain in the early twentieth century. It supplied chemical fertilizers and other agricultural inputs to the associatedmembers, but also established a service of mechanical thershing and developed the industrial production of wine alcohol. Its analysis allows us to retake an issue which for years has been on the historiographical debate, as is the participation of landowners in agricultural cooperatives. It is argued that these associations had difficulty in strengthening because the commitment of their leaders with cooperative action was secondary to other targets that concerned most landowners, such as the defence of cconomíc interests or the prevention of social conñícts. However, peasants only participate in these associations ifthey developed cooperative scrvíccs. The Agricultural Chamber of Igualada could not escape from this contradiction.