Edicts, fines and rural guard. Preservation of rural property and construction of the liberal municipality

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study the behaviour of the main  mechanisms of preserving rural ownership – fines, edicts and rural guards–  in a framework of construction of liberal municipality  between the XIX and XX centuries. With this goal in mind, we have studied the production of these mechanisms in four town councils in Lleida, which have different regimes regarding dry/irrigation lands, animal transport, and exploitation of grass. Within this period, it’s obvious the intensification of the repressive activity with regard to the so-called abuses against ownership, which takes place in the context of a general intensification of the regulating, control and repressive activities in the town councils. The actions taken against the faults comitted in rural ownerships became specially intense in those town councils with a regime of free exploitation of grass on behalf of  its owners. Therefore, the burden of repression  befell the owners of sheep and goat flocks. Specially in these cases, the town hall repressive activity was brought about according to repressive cycles, which were characterized by the increase of the number of fines and their severity, by the increase of publications of edicts and their toughening conditions and, sometimes by the appointment of rural guards.