The Agrarian inequalities in the Vallès Occidental and the War of Succession: Castellar del Vallès, 1688-1723

Abstract

In the final decades of the 17th century, a winegrowing expansion began, based on family farms, which in the long term transformed the countys agriculture and its production relations. Here we study the inequality in the distribution of wealth in the initial phase of this process in Castellar del Vallès. This inequality experienced a decline in the decades preceding the War of Succession, stagnated during the conflict, and resumed at the end of the war with the multiplication of new rabassa morta contracts. By 1716, inequality reached high levels, as these transformations were still in their beginnings, but actually far exceeded that reflected in the cadastre due to the exclusion of a large number of poor families that have been identified in new sources. This shortcoming is not limited to the case studied, and questions the trends highlighted by G. Alfani and his method. The article deals with the distribution of taxes, the cadastre and lawsuits, but its interpretation also responds to the study of the expansion of vineyards, agrarian contracting and the evolution of manorial obligations, which will not be dealt with here.