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Inequality and conflict as drivers of cooperation: the location of wine cooperatives in pre-1936 Spain

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  • Samuel Garrido

    (Department of Economics, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón de la Plana, Spain)

Abstract

As it is usually believed that cooperatives made a great contribution to the modernisation of agriculture and when they began to spread agriculture still had a great weight in European economies, it is of interest to know why agricultural cooperatives had uneven success, both from one crop to another and between and within countries. In this article, I focus on the intriguing case of wine, a product of great importance to Mediterranean Europe. After defending that, in actual fact, wine cooperatives were generally unable to offer members important economic advantages; I argue that they only flourished where some ‘local’ factor increased the attraction of belonging to them and, in addition, it was possible to finance their construction. I use what happened in France as a reference and show that in Spain both circumstances only converged in (a part of) Catalonia, as a paradoxical result of inequality and the social conflicts caused by a sharecropping contract called rabassa morta.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Garrido, 2021. "Inequality and conflict as drivers of cooperation: the location of wine cooperatives in pre-1936 Spain," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 15(2), pages 443-476, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:15:y:2021:i:2:p:443-476
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-020-00210-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jordi Planas, 2016. "The emergence of winemaking cooperatives in Catalonia," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(2), pages 264-282, March.
    2. Eva Fernández & James Simpson, 2017. "Product quality or market regulation? Explaining the slow growth of Europe's wine cooperatives, 1880–1980," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(1), pages 122-142, February.
    3. Hoffman, Elizabeth & Libecap, Gary D., 1991. "Institutional Choice and the Development of U.S. Agricultural Policies in the 1920s," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 397-411, June.
    4. Francisco J. Beltrán Tapia, 2012. "Commons, social capital, and the emergence of agricultural cooperatives in early twentieth century Spain," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(4), pages 511-528, November.
    5. James Simpson, 2011. "Creating Wine: The Emergence of a World Industry, 1840-1914," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9479.
    6. Boix, Carles & Posner, Daniel N., 1998. "Social Capital: Explaining Its Origins and Effects on Government Performance," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(4), pages 686-693, October.
    7. Adeline Alonso Ugaglia & Jean-Marie Cardebat & Alessandro Corsi (ed.), 2019. "The Palgrave Handbook of Wine Industry Economics," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-98633-3, December.
    8. Francisco J. Medina-Albaladejo & Jordi Planas, 2020. "Las bodegas cooperativas y la comercialización del vino en España durante el siglo XX," Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research (IHE-EHR), Journal of the Spanish Economic History Association, Asociación Española de Historia Económica, vol. 16(01), pages 23-34.
    9. Planas, Jordi, 2017. "State Intervention In Wine Markets In The Early 20th Century: Why Was It So Different In France And Spain?," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 175-206, September.
    10. Valentinov, Vladislav, 2007. "Why are cooperatives important in agriculture? An organizational economics perspective," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 55-69, April.
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    12. Samuel Garrido, 2014. "Plenty of trust, not much cooperation: social capital and collective action in early twentieth century eastern Spain," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 18(4), pages 413-432.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wine; Cooperation; Inequality; Social conflict; Spain; Catalonia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • N54 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Europe: 1913-
    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

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