Crisis agrarias en la Asturias del siglo XVII. Una aproximación a su estudio

Abstract

ResumenEl cereal fue el alimento básico que permitió subsistir a la sociedad del Antiguo Régimen, por lo que su abasto fue una de las principales tareas, tanto del gobierno central, como una preocupación constante de los gobiernos locales, y en última instancia de las oligarquías municipales.En este breve estudio, nos centramos en las principales crisis agrarias acaecidas en la Asturias del siglo XVII y, más concretamente, en las que afectaron más de cerca a la capital del Principado, Oviedo. Tras un siglo xvi plagado de problemas de abastecimiento, dada la poca productividad de los cereales tradicionales en la región, el siglo xvn parece dar un respiro al cabildo municipal. A pesar de ello, la geografía específica asturiana, y las cíclicas climatologías desfavorables -periodos de gran humedad seguidos de sequías-perjudicó en no pocas ocasiones al territorio ástur.Palabras clave: Crisis agrarias, abasto de cereal, Asturias, Oviedo, siglo XVII. AbstractThe supply of bread was very important for the survival of people of the Ancien Régimen. It involved, for municipal politcans of that age, a great effort to prevent that the agrarian crisises could lead to demographical crisises, which could reduce the number of people in the city, and it would cause social disturbances.In this article, we make an outline of the most important agrarian crisises (that there were in Asturias) in the 17"' century, although we centre on the city of Oviedo. These crisises were mainly bad weather, which ocasionaly was very rainy or very dry, so that municipal politicans had to buy cereals outside Asturias to provide bread to the city. In spite of, some years were good and there was not shortage of cereals in the Asturias at that time which could sell outside.

Spanish agriculture in the little divergence

“…The expansion of arable lands was not limited to the regions of the south, as the introduction of maize in the north expanded the frontier to lands that were previously unsuitable for the cultivation of other grains (wheat, barley) but had rainfall levels high enough as to make possible maize cultivation. The maize revolution, which started in regions like Asturias, Galicia, and Navarre since mid-seventeenth century, allowed producers to expand cultivated land and increased significantly food production (Floristan Imizcoz, 1985: Diaz Alvarez, 2005. 31 Trends of output per worker and labour force, rather than moving in opposite directions, as postulated by the neo-Malthusian model, evolved alongside.…”