IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2018i1p168-d194060.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Socioecological Transition in Land and Labour Exploitation in Mallorca: From Slavery to a Low-Wage Workforce, 1229–1576

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel Jover-Avellà

    (Economics Department, University of Girona, Montilivi Campus, 17003 Girona, Spain)

  • Antoni Mas-Forners

    (Departament of Historical Sciences and Arts Theory, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, University of Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Cra. de Valldemossa, km 7.5, 07122 Palma, Spain)

  • Ricard Soto-Company

    (Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, University of Barcelona, Diagonal Avenue 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Enric Tello

    (Department of Economic History, Institutions, Policy and World Economy, University of Barcelona, Diagonal Avenue 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain)

Abstract

The permanence of slave labour until the 16th century was a lasting legacy of the late feudal colonization of the Mallorca Island. Through a large set of probate inventories and accounting books, we have documented the use of a great deal of slaves in farming large noble estates during the 14th and 15th centuries. The defeat of the peasant revolt of 1450–1454 offered to nobles and patricians the opportunity to seize much of the land previously colonized by Mallorcan peasants. This creation of a dispossessed peasantry, combined with new trade demands, led to a transition from slave-powered manorial farms to capitalist olive oil-exporting estates that took advantage of the low-wage workforce reserve. A peculiar feature was the massive use of women’s gangs as olive pickers when olive oil became the main cash-crop exported from the 16th century onwards. By linking changes in work and land uses, this study brings to Southern Europe the debate over the driving forces of the emergence of agrarian capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel Jover-Avellà & Antoni Mas-Forners & Ricard Soto-Company & Enric Tello, 2018. "Socioecological Transition in Land and Labour Exploitation in Mallorca: From Slavery to a Low-Wage Workforce, 1229–1576," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-26, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2018:i:1:p:168-:d:194060
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/1/168/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/1/168/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2016. "Unreal Wages? A New Empirical Foundation for the Study of Living Standards and Economic Growth in England, 1260-1860," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _147, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Wickham, Chris, 2005. "Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199264490.
    3. Abulafia,David, 2002. "A Mediterranean Emporium," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521894050, January.
    4. repec:cge:wacage:2015 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Samuel Cohn, 2007. "After the Black Death: labour legislation and attitudes towards labour in late‐medieval western Europe," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 60(3), pages 457-485, August.
    6. John H. Munro, 2011. "The Rise, Expansion, and Decline of the Italian Wool-Based Textile Industries, 1100-1730: a study in international competition, transaction costs, and comparative advantage," Working Papers tecipa-440, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    7. Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2015. "The Wages of Women in England, 1260–1850," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 405-447, June.
    8. Allen, Robert C., 2001. "The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 411-447, October.
    9. Humphries, Jane & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2016. "Unreal Wages? A New Empirical Foundation for the Study of Living Standards and Economic Growth in England, 1260‐1860," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 310, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gary, Kathryn, 2019. "The distinct seasonality of early modern casual labor and the short durations of individual working years: Sweden 1500-1800," Lund Papers in Economic History 189, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    2. Boško Mijatović & Branko Milanović, 2021. "The real urban wage in an agricultural economy without landless farmers: Serbia, 1862–1910," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(2), pages 424-448, May.
    3. , Stone Center & Bleynat, Ingrid & Challú, Amílcar & Segal, Paul, 2020. "Inequality, Living Standards and Growth: Two Centuries of Economic Development in Mexico," SocArXiv 9ztb7, Center for Open Science.
    4. Gary, Kathryn E. & Olsson, Mats, 2019. "Men at work: Real wages from annual and casual labour in southern Sweden 1500–1850," Lund Papers in Economic History 194, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    5. Paolo Malanima, 2018. "Italy in the Renaissance: a leading economy in the European context, 1350–1550," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 3-30, February.
    6. Gregory Clark, 2018. "Growth or stagnation? Farming in England, 1200–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 55-81, February.
    7. Bleynat, Ingrid & Challú, Amílcar & Segal, Paul, 2020. "Inequality, living standards and growth: two centuries of economic development in Mexico," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 105215, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Robert Braid, 2024. "Alternative forms of remuneration at the Holy Spirit Hospital of Marseille in the Fourteenth century," Post-Print hal-04573252, HAL.
    9. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133.
    10. Jane Humphries & Jacob Weisdorf, 2019. "Unreal Wages? Real Income and Economic Growth in England, 1260–1850," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(623), pages 2867-2887.
    11. Kumon, Yuzuru & Sakai, Kazuho, 2022. "Women’s Wages and Empowerment: Pre-industrial Japan, 1600-1890," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 18/2022, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    12. repec:pra:mprapa:56168 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Palma, Nuno & Reis, Jaime & Rodrigues, Lisbeth, 2023. "Historical gender discrimination does not explain comparative Western European development: evidence from Portugal, 1300-1900," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Judy Stephenson, 2018. "Looking for work? Or looking for workers? Days and hours of work in London construction in the eighteenth century," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _162, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    15. James Foreman‐Peck & Peng Zhou, 2018. "Late marriage as a contributor to the industrial revolution in England," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1073-1099, November.
    16. Giovanni Federico, 2021. "Introduction to the symposium on inequality," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(3), pages 581-583, August.
    17. Kumon, Yuzuru & Sakai, Kazuho, 2022. "Women's Wages and Empowerment : Pre-industrial Japan, 1600-1890," CEI Working Paper Series 2022-05, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    18. Gray, Elie & Grimaud, André & Le Bris, David, 2018. "The Farmer, the Blue-collar, and the Monk: Understanding economic development through saturations of demands and non-homothetic productivity gains," TSE Working Papers 18-906, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    19. Remi Jedwab & Noel D. Johnson & Mark Koyama, 2022. "The Economic Impact of the Black Death," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 132-178, March.
    20. Izdebski, Adam & Koloch, Grzegorz & Słoczyński, Tymon & Tycner, Marta, 2016. "On the use of palynological data in economic history: New methods and an application to agricultural output in Central Europe, 0–2000AD," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 17-39.
    21. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Emanuele Felice, 2017. "Benchmarking the Middle Ages. XV century Tuscany in European Perspective," Working Papers 0081, Utrecht University, Centre for Global Economic History.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2018:i:1:p:168-:d:194060. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.