Labour markets and rural unrest in Spanish agriculture, 1860-1936

This paper considers how changes in cultivation influenced the demand for farm labour in the half century prior to the Civil War. In the first section I assess the relative importance of wage labour and the evidence of a farm ladder in Spanish agriculture. The second shows to what extent agricultural labour markets were integrated within a national labour market. I argue that because of sharp seasonal fluctuations in demand, we would expect large amounts of labour flow in both directions between the rural and urban labour markets. Finally, I argue that although the demand for labour in Andaluda grew faster than aggregate supply, the major peaks in demand at harvest time encouraged landowners to use migrant gang labour or mechanise. Employment for the local labour force therefore is likely to have declined, and this was a major cause of the increase in labour militancy during the first third of the twentieth century.