Vine-growing in Catalonia: the main agricultural change underlying the earliest industrialization in Mediterranean Europe (1720-1939)

We present a model of vine-growing specialization that explains the key agricultural change carried out before and throughout the Catalan industrialization. The results confirm the role played by a "Smithian" market-pull force exerted from the Atlantic demand, together with the "Boser...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:European review of economic history 2014-05, Vol.18 (2), p.203-226
Main Authors: BADIA-MIRÓ, MARC, TELLO, ENRIC
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agroecology
Economic history
Endowment
Endowments
Income distribution
Income inequality
Industrial development
Labor force
Landowners
Population
Population density
Prices
Relative prices
Specialization
Trends
Vineyards
Wineries & vineyards
Wines
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We present a model of vine-growing specialization that explains the key agricultural change carried out before and throughout the Catalan industrialization. The results confirm the role played by a "Smithian" market-pull force exerted from the Atlantic demand, together with the "Boserupian" population-push on land-use intensification. They jointly put in motion a process of opening and closing of an inner frontier of vineyard planting, whose local impact was conditioned by the agro-ecological endowments as well as to the different levels and trends of income inequality. Vineyard planting gave rise to less inequality up to the 1820s, but it grew again afterwards.
ISSN:1361-4916
1474-0044
DOI:10.1093/ereh/heu006