La apicultura en Francia y en España entre los siglos XVIII y XIX

This article analyzes the development of the «rational» beekeeping in Spain and France by means of one of the most characteristic aspects of it: transhumance of hives. The question raised by the author is the need of an explanatory hypothesis that accounts for the differences between both countries, with regards to the chronology and the intensity of the movement of bees, which appeared earlier and was more frequent in Spain than in France. Both the exclusively geophysical and the economic options are on their own not a satisfactory answer to he observed differences. Consequently the author considers social aspects as essential, although he attaches importance to the environment and the market. As the key factor he underlines the distribution of properties of beehives, spread in France and gathered in Spain. This conclusion is the result of a long archival research; it is important to emphasize, in the Spanish case, the use of tithe-records and municipal documentation in Albacete and Murcia. Moreover, the author has searched the handbooks on beekeeping published in the studied era and a wide range of bibliography written by local scholars throughout the 18th-19th centuries in both countries. This study is supplemented with a long-term analysis of beekeeping in Murcia, through which the socio-economic features of this activity, between the initial Early Modern Age and the 19th century are dealt with.