La población y el producto cerealista en Guadalajara en la edad moderna

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it quantifies and analyzes the demographic evolution of the province of Guadalajara during the Early Modern Age and the first decades of the Modern Age. Second, it estimates the cereal production in two specific areas, La Campiña and La Sierra, between the end of the 16th century and the second half of the 18th century. The main primary sources used here are the baptisms registers of 47 towns and villages, several population censuses, and the tithes of the archpriesthood of Sigüenza and five archpriesthoods that belonged to the archbishopric of Toledo. It is concluded that: a) from the end of the 16th century onwards, population stagnation characterized the Guadalajara region; b) we find sharp contrasts between the different demographic path followed by the province areas under consideration; c) apart from the first half of the 17th century, when its fall was higher, the cereal production followed the same trend than population; and d) after 1650 the per capita cereal production began to recover, although in La Campiña the explanation lays on its slow growth in population. (Main text in Spanish)