IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ahe/dtaehe/1701.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The fruit of inequality: wine, efficiency, agrarian contracts and property rights in Catalonia (1898-1935)

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Garrido

    (Universitat Jaume I, Spain)

Abstract

With the aim of drawing lessons that can act as a reference for reforms in today’s developing countries, economic historians are showing a renewed interest in the European experiences of agrarian reform. But in some developing countries property rights over the land show‘oddities’ with respect to the ‘Western canon’. Drawing on the case of Catalonia, this paper maintains that, if their work is to be useful, historians should be sensitive to the fact that in Europe – including the United Kingdom – oddities were not rare either. In Catalan vineyards, sharecropping contracts that granted the sharecropper ownership rights over the land were in widespread usage. Around 1900, sharecroppers’ rights became insecure, which led to several dysfunctions that the paper analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Garrido, 2017. "The fruit of inequality: wine, efficiency, agrarian contracts and property rights in Catalonia (1898-1935)," Documentos de Trabajo (DT-AEHE) 1701, Asociación Española de Historia Económica.
    • Handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1701
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://media.timtul.com/media/web_aehe/dt-aehe-1701_20240108094405.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Samuel Garrido & Salvador Calatayud, 2011. "The price of improvements: agrarian contracts and agrarian development in nineteenth‐century eastern Spain," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(2), pages 598-620, May.
    2. James Simpson, 2004. "Selling to reluctant drinkers: the British wine market, 1860–1914," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 57(1), pages 80-108, February.
    3. Garrido, Samuel, 2011. "Fixed-rent contracts and investment incentives. A comparative analysis of English tenant right," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 66-82, January.
    4. Lamoreaux, Naomi R., 2011. "The Mystery of Property Rights: A U.S. Perspective," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 275-306, June.
    5. Barzel,Yoram, 1997. "Economic Analysis of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521597135, February.
    6. Ackerberg, Daniel A. & Botticini, Maristella, 2000. "The Choice of Agrarian Contracts in Early Renaissance Tuscany: Risk Sharing, Moral Hazard, or Capital Market Imperfections?," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 241-257, July.
    7. Juan Carmona & Joan R. Rosés, 2012. "Land markets and agrarian backwardness (Spain, 1904-1934)," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(1), pages 74-96, February.
    8. Enric Tello & Marc Badia-Miró, 2011. "Land-use profiles of agrarian income and land ownership inequality in the province of Barcelona in mid-nineteenth century," Documentos de Trabajo de la Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria 1101, Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria.
    9. Marc Badia‐Miró & Enric Tello & Francesc Valls & Ramon Garrabou, 2010. "The Grape Phylloxera Plague As A Natural Experiment: The Upkeep Of Vineyards In Catalonia (Spain), 1858–1935," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 50(1), pages 39-61, March.
    10. Keith Hartley & Todd Sandler (ed.), 2007. "Handbook of Defense Economics," Handbook of Defense Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 1.
    11. Juan Carmona & James Simpson, 2012. "Explaining contract choice: vertical coordination, sharecropping, and wine in Europe, 1850–1950," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(3), pages 887-909, August.
    12. James Simpson & Juan Carmona, 2015. "Too many workers or not enough land? Why land reform fails in Spain during the 1930s," Documentos de Trabajo de la Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria 1509, Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel Garrido, 2010. "Mejorar y quedarse. La cesión de tierra a rentas por debajo del equilibrio en la Valencia del siglo XIX," Documentos de Trabajo de la Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria 1009, Sociedad de Estudios de Historia Agraria.
    2. Mehrdad Vahabi, 2011. "Appropriation, violent enforcement, and transaction costs: a critical survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 227-253, April.
    3. Roses, Joan R., 2015. "Spanish land reform in the 1930s: economic necessity or political opportunism?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 64498, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Vahabi,Mehrdad, 2019. "The Political Economy of Predation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107591370.
    5. Marc Badia-Miro & Enric Tello, 2013. "An agency-oriented model to explain vine-growing specialization in the province of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) in the mid-nineteenth century," Working Papers in Economics 290, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    6. Lluis Parcerisas & Joan Marull & Joan Pino & Enric Tello & Francesc Coll & Corina Basnou, 2012. "Land use changes, landscape ecology and their socioeconomic driving forces in the Spanish Mediterranean coast (the Maresme County, 1850-2005)," Working Papers in Economics 273, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    7. Alexandra Benham & Lee Benham, 2010. "The Costs of Exchange," Chapters, in: Peter G. Klein & Michael E. Sykuta (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Transaction Cost Economics, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Kamilia Loukil, 2020. "Dynamic Panel Data Analysis Of The Impact Of Intellectual Property Rights On Entrepreneurship In Emerging And Developing Countries," Oradea Journal of Business and Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 40-48, March.
    9. Susan J. Guthrie & Hines, James R. Jr., 2011. "U.S. DEFENSE CONTRACTS DURING the TAX EXPENDITURE BATTLES of the 1980s," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 64(2), pages 731-751, June.
    10. Meina Cai & Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Murtazashvili & Raufhon Salahodjaev, 2020. "Individualism and governance of the commons," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 184(1), pages 175-195, July.
    11. Kirsten Foss & Nicolai Foss, 2001. "Theoretical isolation in contract theory: suppressing margins and entrepreneurship," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 313-339.
    12. Whitten, Stuart M. & Salzman, James & Shelton, Dave & Procter, Wendy, 2003. "Markets for ecosystem services: Applying the concepts," 2003 Conference (47th), February 12-14, 2003, Fremantle, Australia 58269, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    13. Foss Kirsten & Foss Nicolai & Klein Peter G. & Klein Sandra K., 2002. "Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, March.
    14. Yang-Ming Chang, 2012. "Strategic transfers, redistributive fiscal policies, and family bonds: a micro-economic analysis," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 25(4), pages 1481-1502, October.
    15. Richard Cornes & Roger Hartley & Yuji Tamura, 2019. "Two‐Aggregate Games: Demonstration Using a Production–Appropriation Model," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 353-378, January.
    16. Mayshar, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika, 2011. "Transparency, Appropriability and the Early State," CEPR Discussion Papers 8548, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Tamara Todorova, 2004. "The Firm in the Context of the Theory of Transaction Costs," Economic Thought journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 1, pages 55-74.
    18. Patrick Maximilian Weber & Beata Stępień, 2020. "Conform or challenge? Adjustment strategies of sanction‐torn companies," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(11), pages 3006-3024, November.
    19. Yutaka ARIMOTO & Tetsuji OKAZAKI & Masaki NAKABAYASHI, 2010. "Agrarian Land Tenancy In Prewar Japan: Contract Choice And Implications On Productivity," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 48(3), pages 293-318, September.
    20. Mayshar, Joram & Moav, Omer & Neeman, Zvika, 2017. "Geography, Transparency, and Institutions," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 111(3), pages 622-636, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agrarian contracts; Property rights; Catalonia; Wine; Sharecropping; Land reform.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N53 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N54 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: 1913-
    • P14 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Property Rights
    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ahe:dtaehe:1701. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Antònia Morey (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeheeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.