Drets de l’aigua, drets de la terra i conreu de l’arròs a l’Empordà del segle xviii

Abstract

During the eighteenth century, rice farming in the Empordà region reached its maximum extent. Farming generated a series of conflicts derived from property rights over ricefields and also from rights over irrigation water. The high profits gained from rice farming generated conflicts that brought about the prohibiton of its cultivation. Profits went to holders of land property rights (usually lords not residing in the area), but also to mill owners and water owners, who ceded water by emphyteutic lease. ‘Water lords’ received a payment for rights over areas sown with rice or for rights to the harvest in compensation for irrigation work on canals and ditches. This was known as the water right.