A History of Spain / founded on the Historia de España y de la civilización española of Rafael Altamira

by Charles E. Chapman; Rafael Altamira

Wretched state of domestic life.

Obstacles in the way of economic reforms.

Despite the great body of reforms carried out, the problem was overwhelming, and much of the country was still in a backward state at the end of the era. Aragon and Old Castile were in a miserable condition, not nearly equalling their agricultural possibilities, and La Mancha was in a far worse plight. The number of large-sized towns in Andalusia gave that land an appearance of wealth and prosperity which was not borne out by the facts, if the situation of the country districts were taken into account. The character of Spanish houses at this time was also expressive of the national economic shortcomings. Cave houses and adobe huts with roofs of straw abounded in Castile. The houses of Galicia were described as having walls of unpolished stone, often without cement, reaching scarcely higher than a man’s head, with great slabs of rock for a roof; the doorway and a hole in the roof served as the only means for the penetration of light and for the escape of smoke; and the domestic animals and the family made common use of the wretched house. In the Basque provinces, Navarre, and Valencia the homes were much better, besides being cleaner, although a lack of glass windows, chimneys, and furniture was quite general in all parts of Spain. Through French influences these defects were beginning to be overcome as the era approached a close. If to this miserable state of the domestic life there is added the ignorance of the people (who resisted innovations designed to benefit them), the economic inequality resulting from the concentration of vast landed estates in a few hands, the difficulty of communications, the burdens of taxation, the mismanagement of the administration (despite the efforts of enlightened ministers), the frequency of wars, and the persistence of a spirit of repugnance to labor (leading to a resort to mendicancy or vagabondage or to a reliance upon a somewhat questionably desirable charity) it becomes clear why the economic situation should have been considered perhaps the most urgent problem which the Spanish ministers had to solve, and their failure to overcome all of the difficulties can be understood. According to Campomanes there was an army of 140,000 beggars and vagabonds in Spain in his day, most of whom were able to work and might have found something to do. He and the other ministers of Charles III endeavored to solve the matter by putting the physically able women in workhouses, the men in the army and navy, and the old and infirm in homes for the aged and in hospitals, but owing to the lack of funds these projects could not be carried out in entirety.

Constructive attempts of the state and private individuals to overcome economic evils.

The evils of the economic situation being clear, efforts were made, especially in the reign of Charles III, to correct them at their sources. To combat the ignorance, indifference, and in some cases the laziness and prejudice of the masses with regard to labor technical and primary schools were founded and model shops and factories established; prizes were awarded for debates and papers on various industrial subjects; printed manuals, including many translated from foreign languages, were scattered broadcast; teachers and skilled laborers from foreign lands were induced to come to Spain, and Spaniards were pensioned to go abroad to study; privileges, exemptions, and monopolies were granted to persons distinguishing themselves by their initiative and zeal in industry; and laws were passed to raise the dignity of manual labor. In this campaign the government received substantial aid from private individuals. In 1746 the first of the Sociedades Económicas de los Amigos del País (economic societies of the friends of the country) was founded. In 1766 its statutes were published, serving thenceforth as the model for other like institutions in Spain, all of them devoted philanthropically to the encouragement of agriculture and other phases of the economic life of their particular district. Nobles, churchmen, and members of the wealthy middle class formed the backbone of these societies, of which there were sixty-two in 1804. Many of them published periodicals, or founded schools for the study of such subjects as agriculture, botany, chemistry, the various trades, stenography, and economics. To promote the cultivation of the soil the state itself assisted in schemes for the colonization of waste lands. The most famous instance was that of the government colonies in the Sierra Morena country of northern Andalusia. In 1766 a certain Bavarian adventurer offered to bring six thousand German and Flemish laborers to settle that district. Charles III favored the project, and it was at once undertaken. For a time it was successful; a number of settlements were made,—there were forty-one in 1775,—and considerable crops were raised. In the end the project failed, due to bad administration, lack of funds, the imposition of heavy taxes, the opposition of the clergy to the predominantly lay spirit of the undertaking, the jealousies arising between the Spanish and foreign elements (for many of the colonists were Spaniards), and the failure to provide adequate means of communication whereby the colonists could export their surplus products. Some of the towns continued to exist, however, and the project was influential in causing private individuals to attempt colonizations, several of which were successful. Among other constructive governmental measures were the removal of the legal obstacles to the sale or division of waste lands or lands common, the restriction of the privileges of the Mesta, the betterment of the conditions surrounding leases (favoring the prolongation of the period of the lease, and aiming to assist the individual who actually cultivated the soil), and the reduction of customs duties or a grant of complete freedom of entry in the case of certain raw materials used in Spanish manufacturing establishments. Public works were also undertaken, such as the construction of irrigation canals, though many were not completed or were made so imperfectly that they soon went to ruin; great highways to open up the peninsula were planned, and under Charles III much work upon them was done, though not enough to meet the needs of the country; an efficient mail service was developed by Floridablanca; shipbuilding was encouraged; banditry and piracy were to a great extent suppressed; government support was given to commercial companies; and a national bank was established by Charles III,—which failed in the reign of Charles IV. The government also intervened in problems of local subsistence, with a view to maintaining articles of prime necessity at a low price and in sufficient quantity, but its action in this particular did not always produce the desired result. Finally, the government interested itself in charity. Benevolent institutions were founded, not only with a view to checking mendicancy and vagabondage, but also to provide homes for unfortunate women, insane persons, and orphans. Private individuals gave liberally for these purposes, or founded charitable organizations, which rendered service of a somewhat remarkable character in succoring the poor, building hospitals, and rescuing children. Mutual benefit societies were formed, reaching into every walk of life, and some of these, termed montepíos or montes de piedad, were made compulsory for the employes of the government; thus the montepío for soldiers, dating from 1761, served as a pension system whereby some provision was made for the widows and orphans of the deceased. All of these reforms encountered the difficulties arising from ignorance, conservatism, the resistance of vested interests, graft, and bureaucratic cumbersomeness which have already been discussed. The very immensity of the reforms projected was against their satisfactory execution, for more was tried than could be done well. Other obstacles already mentioned, such as bad administration, insufficiency of funds, and lack of persistence, contributed to the same result. Nevertheless, though plans outran accomplishment, a vast amount was done, especially in the reign of Charles III, when the spirit of the era reached its culminating point.

Obstacles to agricultural development and attempts to overcome them.

To form a correct idea of the state of agriculture in this period it is necessary to note how the lands of the peninsula were distributed. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after a hundred years of effort directed to the release of realty, the church possessed 9,093,400 fanegas[66] of land, the nobles 28,306,700, and the plebeian class 17,599,000, but the greater part of the estates of both the nobles and the plebeians was entailed, and therefore impossible of alienation, closing the door to the growth of a class of small proprietors. The proportion of proprietors to population was only one in forty. In Ávila, for example, the church owned 239,591 fanegas, 157,092 were entailed, and only 8160 were cultivated by owners who resided in the neighborhood. The small proprietor was to be found principally in the north and east, but he was far outnumbered, even in those regions, by the lessees of lands, who were also the overwhelmingly strongest element numerically in Castile. The forms of renting were various, both as to the type of payment required and as to the length of term. Where the term was practically hereditary, conditions were much better, approximating those of the small proprietor. In Andalusia latifundia were the rule, cultivated in only a portion of the estate by day laborers, who were employed at certain seasons of the year, living in a state of great misery at other times. This evil was tempered in Extremadura by the utilization of lands common. Despite the sincere attempts of the government to encourage agriculture, that industry was still in an extremely backward state at the close of the era, with only a little of the cultivable ground planted, an insufficient development of irrigation, and a lack of fencing. Valencia and the Basque provinces were the most nearly prosperous regions; the others were in a wretched state. In addition to the governmental reforms already referred to, the following may be mentioned: several laws of Charles III forbade owners to dispossess tenants arbitrarily, and even went so far as to prohibit ejectments unless the owner should consent to reside on his lands and cultivate them; attempts were made to procure reforestation, partly with a view to conserving the water supply, but the national repugnance to trees was so great that the laws were not carried out; and the abusive privileges of the Mesta were attacked by Charles III, and in the next reign, in 1795, the separate jurisdiction of that organization was taken away, but as the laws did not clearly authorize the enclosure of cultivable lands the relief to agriculture was slight. Wheat was the principal crop, supplying more than enough, in normal years, for the needs of the peninsula. Grapes were also raised in large quantities, and were made into excellent wines, many of which were exported. For the rest there were fruits, vegetables, the silkworm, and other things of the sort which had always been cultivated in the peninsula. Various kinds of beans, and especially chickpeas (garbanzos), were grown in large quantities, and furnished an important element in the nation’s food. An estimate made in 1812 calculated the total value of farm products as 72,476,189,159 reales (about $4,500,000,000) yielding annually some 3,600,000,000 reales (about $225,000,000).

Revival of manufacturing.

Mining.

Fishing.