Inequality in rural Catalonia in the early eighteenth century

This paper analyses economic inequality in central Catalonia in the early 1720s using the information contained in cadastral tax records. The data set includes 2,617 male taxpayers distributed across 17 rural villages. We take advantage of the large amount of information provided by the cadastre to...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Martínez Galarraga, Julio, Prat Sabartés, Marc
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/217372
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/217372
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Desigualtat social
Desenvolupament rural
Història econòmica
Llana
Social inequality
Rural development
Economic history
Wool
Descripción
Sumario:This paper analyses economic inequality in central Catalonia in the early 1720s using the information contained in cadastral tax records. The data set includes 2,617 male taxpayers distributed across 17 rural villages. We take advantage of the large amount of information provided by the cadastre to study economic inequality in a pre-industrial society by looking at both wealth and income inequality. Compared to previous work on Western Europe, our results generally show high levels of inequality in rural Catalonia. However, inequality seems to be lower among those groups engaged in non-agricultural activities. Then, and given the traditional presence of proto-industrial activities in this area of Catalonia, we explore the effect of proto-industrial wool specialization on levels of inequality.