Contratos agrarios y renta de la tierra en Toledo, 1521-1650

Little is known about the management of secular clergy assets in modern Spain. The aim of this work is to analyse agrarian contracts and the evolution of land rent in Toledo between 1521 and 1650, from a representative sample of fifty rural properties belonging to the city’s Cathedral. The census was the most frequent contract, although the lease provided the main source of income for the Chapter. Long-term leases were more prevalent during the first half of the sixteenth century, after which short-term leases increased. From 1521-1529 and 1642-1650, farmland rents increased by 28%, while meadow rents fell by 57%. Such a divergence can be explained by the growing profitability of farmland and increases in the cost of livestock activities. In the seventeenth century, agrarian depression in the region and reorientation of Madrid’s grain supplies would have driven down the rents of the Cathedral farmlands that were closely located to the seat of the new Crown. However, the takeover of a considerable share of the leases by Chapter canons and civil elites would have altered both rent trends and contractual formulas. This makes the role of land rent a proxy for economic performance and questions the idea that corporate interests prevailed over the ideal of maximizing income.