Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 9 (2013) 75–87
Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic
History Research
www.elsevier.es/ihe
Artículo
The legacy of Earl J. Hamilton. New data for the study of prices in Spain,
1650–1800
Ernesto López Losa
Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Departamento de Historia e Instituciones Económicas, Bilbao, Spain
article info
Article history:
Received 12 February 2012
Accepted 25 September 2012
Available online 10 January 2013
JEL classification:
E31
N93
O52
Y10
Keywords:
Price history
Early Modern Spain
abstract
This paper presents a new dataset on regional prices in Early Modern Spain. Earl J. Hamilton published
in the American Treasure and The Price Revolution in Spain, 1500–1650 prices for the four regions in
which he divided Spain – Valencia, Andalusia, Old Castile-León and New Castile- but this was not the
case in War and Prices in Spain, 1651–1800. Here he printed only prices for the last region. Nevertheless,
he presented indices of prices and salaries throughout the book for the three remaining regions for
which the raw data is preserved in the archive of his personal papers at Duke University. Having access
to the cards and worksheets where prices from primary sources were computed allows us, firstly, to
recover the prices for Old Castile-León, Andalusia and Valencia and to discover how the series for each
region and period were built; secondly, to test their validity for purposes other than those he sought.
Finally, the prices of some selected goods for the period 1651–1800 are reconstructed, analysed and
published.
© 2012 Asociación Española de Historia Económica. Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights
reserved.
El legado de Earl J. Hamilton. Nuevos datos para el estudio de los precios
en Espa
˜
na, 1650–1800
Códigos JEL:
E31
N93
O52
Y10
Palabras clave:
Historia de los Precios
Espa
˜
na Moderna
resumen
Este texto tiene como objetivo incrementar la información cuantitativa sobre precios disponible para la
Espa
˜
na Moderna. En los apéndices de El tesoro americano y la revolución de los precios, 1501–1650 Hamilton
publicó series de las cuatro regiones en las que divide Espa
˜
na. Sin embargo, en Guerra y Precios en Espa
˜
na
1651–1800 únicamente lo hizo para Castilla la Nueva, aunque elaboró índices de precios y salarios de
Andalucía, Valencia y Castilla la Vieja con datos que se conservan en su archivo personal en la Universidad
de Duke. El acceso a las fichas y hojas de trabajo en las que recogió los precios permite descubrir el origen
de las cifras y la forma en la que las series fueron elaboradas para cada región y período. Gracias a ello ha
sido posible, primero, recuperar los precios no publicados de Castilla la Vieja-León, Andalucía y Valencia,
y completar la imagen peninsular entre 1500 y 1800; y, segundo, testar y poner a prueba la validez de
los mismos para otros usos distintos a los que Hamilton pretendió. La principal aportación de este texto
es la reconstrucción, análisis y publicación de series de precios de varios productos básicos en las cestas
de la compra espa
˜
nolas de la Edad Moderna para el período 1650–1800.
© 2012 Asociación Espa
˜
nola de Historia Económica. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L. Todos los
derechos reservados.
E-mail address: ernesto.lopez@ehu.es
1698-6989/$ – see front matter © 2012 Asociación Española de Historia Económica. Published by Elsevier España, S.L. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ihe.2012.09.003
76 E. López Losa / Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 9 (2013) 75–87
1. Introduction
The importance
1
that prices and wages have for Early Mod-
ern historiography is unquestionable, as they shed light on many
aspects of an economic reality lacking in quantitative informa-
tion. The paucity of data for macroeconomic estimations during
the Early Modern period reinforces the added value that wages,
salaries and prices offer for its understanding. As Van Zanden put
it not so long ago, they would constitute the genetic print of the
pre-industrial economies (Van Zanden, 2009b, p. 131). A large part
of the statistical information on prices used currently is taken from
research the International Scientific Committee on Price History
instituted in the interwar years
2
. The monetary disarray follow-
ing WWI and the crisis that capitalist economies were suffering
at the time were behind all these studies
3
. Their intention was to
understand the causes and consequences of inflationary processes
by analysing possible historical precedents. The impoverishment
and pauperization of a large part of the population in the same
countries was another factor that stimulated research on the rela-
tionship between prices and wages. After WWII, research into price
history achieved good results too, particularly in France, under the
influence of Labrousse and the rich material offered by the mercu-
riales of that country, as well as in other countries such as Belgium
or Great Britain
4
. In recent times, the debates on the Industri-
ous Revolution and the Little/Great Divergence have once again
situated prices and wages at the centre of historical debate. The
emphasis placed on questions such as long-term economic perfor-
mance or the source of economic inequality, both in and between
countries and continents since pre-industrial times, has made their
use as a reference inescapable
5
. In Spain, few picked up Hamilton’s
trail – although the works of Vilar (1987) for Catalonia, Fernández
Romero (2005) for Navarre and Ponsot’s research on West Andalu-
sia are worthy of mention
6
. Following the French example, what
are known as the mercuriales have also been exploited in Spain
to compose series of grain prices, but few are the works that offer
prices for staples other than cereals
7
. The exception to the rule for
its breadth as regards time period, subject matter and analysis is the
outstanding work of Feliu (1991, 2004) on Early Modern Catalonia.
In this context, Hamilton’s series have been used widely, and rarely
1
The appendix withthe annual series of prices can be found in the Supplementary
materials for López, E., ‘The legacy of E. Hamilton. New data for the study of prices
in Spain, 1650–1800’, Investigaciones de Historia Económica, 9, (2013), pp. 75–87
available at doi:10.1016/j.ihe.2012.09.003. Apart from the commodities analysed
below the appendix includes prices of charcoal.
2
For example, Labrousse (1933); Hamilton (1934, 1936, 1947); Hauser (1936);
Parenti(1939); Simiand (1932b, 1932c,1932a, 1934); Beveridge (1939); Cole(1938);
Hoszowski and Bujak (1928); Hoszowski (1934); Elsas (1936). For International Sci-
entific Committee on Price History, see Cole and Crandall (1964). The canonical
approach to Price history appears in Kula (1974), pp. 403–480.
3
“Le problème des prix: quelle en est l’importance, aujourd’hui, dans tous les
domaines de la vie économique et sociale d’un univers profondément troublé”.
Febvre (1930),p.67.
4
For instance, Braudel and Spooner (1967); Baulant and Meuvret (1960); Baulant
(1968, 1976); Dupâquier et al. (1968); Frêche and Frêche (1967); Verlinden (1959);
Wee (1963); Phelps Brown and Hopkins (1955, 1956), Rappaport (1989); Boulton
(1996, 2000); Gibson and Smout (1995).
5
Including but not limited to Allen (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007a, 2007b, 2011); Allen
et al. (2005); Allen et al. (2011a); Allen et al. (2011b); Clark (2005, 2007); Van Zanden
(1995, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2009b); Ma and Van Zanden (2011); Hoffman et al.
(2002, 2005); Malanima (2009); Pamuk (2004, 2007); Lindert (2000); Broadberry
and Gupta (2006); Van Zanden (2009a).
6
Hamilton provided Ponsot with some of his unpublished series for Seville.
Ponsot (1986), xi.
7
For example, Ánes (1970); Garrabou (1970); Le Flem (1977); Usero González
and Eiras Roel (1975); Palop (1975); Eiras Roel (1984); Arizcun Cela (1989); Barquín
Gil (2001); García-Zú
˜
niga (1996); Vicedo Rius (2008); Caro López (1985, 1987); Ruiz
Rivera (1977); Gámez Amián (1981); HernándezFranco (1981); CarriónArregui et al.
(1998); Crespo López-Urrutia (1995); Macías Hernández (2011); Álvarez Vázquez
(1987); Salazar Anuncibay (2005); Uriarte Ayo (1988).
disputed, and have served as the basis for long term approaches to
the performance of the Spanish economy during the Early Modern
centuries
8
.Hamilton’s printed series are not without their idiosyn-
crasies. Setting aside his approach to medieval Valencia, Aragón and
Navarre (Hamilton, 1936), he made series of prices and wages for
the 1501–1650 period available for four areas he considered repre-
sentative of the whole country: Andalusia, Old Castile-León, New
Castile and Valencia (Hamilton, 1934)
9
. However, in War and Prices
in Spain, 1651–1800, due to printing costs, he published only those
for New Castile (Hamilton, 1947, p. 101). Although recent studies
have increased knowledge on the subject, the deficit of published
nominal series of prices, wages and salaries is still extensive for
the years after 1650 (Llopis et al., 2000; Llopis Agelán et al., 2009;
Llopis & García, 2011; Feliu, 2004; Andrés Ucendo & Lanza García,
2007). This text does not intend to reactivate the debate on Hamil-
tonian theses about the rise of capitalism or the quantity theory
of money; its goal is another. Firstly, it aims to present the prices
Hamilton used to create his indices for Old Castile-León, Andalusia
and Valencia between 1651 and 1800 but did not publish. Secondly,
it scrutinizes their potential and deficiencies for their hypothetical
use in purposes other than those the American economist intended.
Finally, the appendix reproduces the annual price series of the
selected goods standardised to metric measures and with prices
converted to grams of silver
10
. Throughout the text, in addition,
the data will be displayed in figures based on five-year averages to
ease the visual approach to the series.
2. Hamilton’s papers
In 2001 Robert C. Allen published an influential article on prices
and wages in Europe from the Middle Ages to WWI (Allen, 2001).
Among several European cities, he presented information for two
Spanish cities, Madrid and Valencia. While the data for the first
was known, that of Valencia was a surprise for it was, certainly,
unknown. Allen’s reference alluded to the Earl J. Hamilton Papers
collection in the archives of Duke University, where the raw mate-
rial for the non-published price series of Valencia, Andalusia and
Old Castile-León was kept
11
. Thanks to that, it has been possible to
recover the prices he used to devise the series for these regions and
to study the mechanics used to produce them. As is well known,
Hamilton used fifty-year periods for his analysis, a methodology
that was criticised by contemporaries (Vilar, 1949, p. 35). Hamil-
ton does not seem to have been very worried, either about small
variations in the number of goods in every fifty-year index, or in
representing the real and relative prices of the items included; as
he opted for building unweighted arithmetic indices of prices and
wages between 1651 and 1800, that was not apparently a big issue
(Hamilton, 1947, p. 114). Nevertheless, he always tried to maintain
the same origin for each price series in each period. When he con-
sidered it necessary, instead of adding data from other institutions
or places, he recurred to estimating hypothetical prices through the
ratios obtained from comparisons with other sources – preferably
of the same locality – to compose the most complete series possi-
ble. As Vilar (1949, p. 31) pointed out, he was more interested in
having the series of each item be the most homogenous possible
8
Yun Casalilla (1994); Carreras (2003); Álvarez Nogal and Prados de la Escosura
(2006); Álvarez Nogal and Prados de la Escosura (2007); Martín Ace
˜
na (1992); Reher
and Ballesteros (1993); Drelichman (2005).
9
Vilar (1949) and Nadal (1959) underlined loopholes in this scheme.
10
Unless indicated, I followed the equivalence of measures and weights given by
Hamilton (1934).
11
Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscript Library.
Inventory of the Earl J. Hamilton Papers, 1350–1995 and undated (bulk
1650–1940). Major Works Series, 1350–1961 and undated. http://library.duke.edu/
digitalcollections/rbmscl/hamiltonearl/inv/ (Hereafter EHP-MWS).
E. López Losa / Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 9 (2013) 75–87 77
Table 1
Origin of prices for Old Castile-León indices.
1651–1700 1701–1750 1751–1800
Hospital de Nuestra Se
˜
nora de Esgueva (Valladolid) 29 18 11
Monasterio de Nuestra Se
˜
nora de Sandoval (Mansilla) 32 33 16
Total 61 51 27
Source: Hamilton (1947, pp. 117, 138, 153).
Table 2
Control prices for the Old-Castile-León series.
Years Years
Ávila Santander
San Jerónimo de Jesús 1661–1685 Dominicos de Santillana 1754–1768
1691–1699 Franciscanos (Castro Urdiales) 1768
Benitos 1662–1685
1691–1696
Segovia León
Mercenarios Calzados 1687–1705 Benitos de Sahagún 1701–1713
1711–1720 1729–1753
1742–1768 Salamanca
1788–1800 Dominicos San Esteban 1705
Convento Hospital de San Juan de Dios 1706–1740 Carmelitas Calzados 1755–1763
Dominicos de Nieva 1774–1800 Trinitarios Ciudad Rodrigo 1764–1787
Source: EHP-MWS, Box 5, Old Castile prices (3 folders), 1651–1700; 1700–1750; 1750–1800.
than in the homogeneity between the prices of the different goods
included in every regional index. The objective here is to build the
most homogeneous and continuous prices series possible based on
the data he collected covering the years 1651–1800. This involves
analysing Hamilton’s annotations, product by product and year by
year, to distinguish the source for every price, the way they were
assembled, to find out where real values were entered and where
prices were estimated and how. By doing so, it is possible to ascer-
tain the origin and characteristics of every single price and product
and, in this way, to clarify the validity of their use for purposes other
than analysing the inflationist trends of the Spanish economy of the
time.
Hamilton composed the indices for Old Castile-León using prices
from the Hospital de Nuestra Se
˜
nora de Esgueva in Valladolid and
the Monasterio de Nuestra Se
˜
nora de Sandoval in Villaverde de
Sandoval
12
. The origin of the prices of oil, rice, a variety of fish,
grain, soap, cloth, salt and shoes would be the latter; meats (beef
and mutton), lard, fruit, coal, twine, bread and eggs were from Val-
ladolid. Among his papers there are also data for other places in the
region. Although general trends were usually similar, he believed
that distances made their use complicated; consequently, he took
them only as control references (Hamilton, 1947, pp. 116–117). The
comparison with prices he gathered from Segovia presents some
peculiarities, given that the price of products such as wine, cod,
hake or meats show differences with those of León or Valladolid.
The price of olive oil or other groceries, however, was very simi-
lar; chocolate, for instance, cost practically the same in Valladolid
and in Segovia. Reasons are impossible to discern from Hamilton’s
papers. Different measuring systems could be responsible for these
variations as, for instance, the existence of a 40-ounce pound for
12
Villaverde de Sandoval belongs to Mansilla, a village twelve miles southeast of
the city of Leon. (Henceforth Mansilla). Surprisingly enough, Regina Grafe (2011, p.
49) asserts that Old Castile-León series were ¨collated ou
¨
t using prices from Val-
ladolid, León, Salamanca, Ávila, Segovia, Santander, Castro Urdiales and Logro
˜
no,
something that Hamilton never stated and that his inedited notes, and War and
Prices itself, clearly prove not to be the case. The same applies to Andalusia, for the
prices are exclusively from Seville and not a mix of prices from Seville and Cádiz as
she wrote. See Grafe (2011, p. 49, 100).
Table 3
New Castile 1651–1800. Number of product prices according to source.
1651–1700 1701–1750 1751–1800
Madrid 10 13 17
Toledo 49 45 56
Casarrubios del Monte 34 31 26
Total 93 89 99
Source: Hamilton (1947), pp. 117–118, 138, 153.
meats was known in Segovia
13
. Nor can one discount the influence
of factors such as product quality or taxes, although there is lit-
tle conclusive information at the moment. When he made inter-
or extrapolations, he estimated ratios from the Monasterio Real de
San Benito in Sahagún and, principally, from Mansilla or Valladolid
alternatively. Only in some few cases (firewood, hens) did he use
prices from Ávila, Segovia or Salamanca as a reference for his cal-
culations. (Tables 1 and 2). For New Castile, prices were derived
from several sources: the Hospital Tavera (San Juan Bautista) and
the Monasterio de los Dominicos de San Pedro (both in Toledo),
the Convento de las Religiosas Bernardas in Casarrubios del Monte
(a village in the province of Toledo, halfway between the cities of
Toledo and Madrid), while for the last city, the main source was the
Hospital de la Venerable Orden Tercera, with some prices inter and
extrapolated using records of colleges of the University of Alcalá
and the Monasterio de Nuestra Se
˜
nora del Paular for the period
1651-1701 (Hamilton, 1947, pp. 117–118). As Llopis and García
(2011) indicate, most of the prices for New Castile are taken from
Toledo, this city providing approximately 50% of them (olive oil,
rice, twine, beef, mutton...), while around a third come from Casar-
rubios (wheat, chickpeas, cod or shoes...). Wine and linen are the
most significant prices from Madrid, followed by chocolate from
1701 onwards
14
(Table 3).
In Valencia, prices were collected from the Hospital dels Inno-
cents, and, to a lesser extent, from the Colegio Santo Tomás de
13
“In this city you will find a pound of ... 40 (ounces), which is the butcher’s pound
in Segovia, or the libra carnicera... Clarke (1763, p. 92; Aznar (1727, p. 153).
14
In the case of wheat, some gaps in the series were completed with prices from
the San Juan Hospital in Toledo, which were quite similar to those In Casarrubios.
EHP-MWS, Box 7. New Castile Original Price Sheets.
78 E. López Losa / Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 9 (2013) 75–87
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Valencia Andalusia (Seville) New Castile (Casarrubios) Old Castile-León (Mansilla)
1651-55
1656-60
1661-65
1666-70
1671-75
1676-80
1681-85
1686-90
1691-95
1696-00
1701-05
1706-10
1711-15
1716-20
1721-25
1726-30
1731-35
1736-40
1741-45
1746-50
1751-55
1756-60
1761-65
1766-70
1771-75
1776-80
1781-85
1786-90
1791-95
1796-00
Figure 1. Wheat prices. Grams of silver per hectolitre.
Source: EHP-MWS. Box 5, Old Castile Worksheets; Andalusia Final Commodity List. Box 7. New Castile Original Price Sheets; Santo Tomas, prices/commodity worksheets; Worksheets
and Calculations for Prices. Feliu (1991).
Villanueva; in Seville, they came from the del Espíritu Santo, del
Amor de Dios and de la Sangre Hospitals (Hamilton, 1947, pp. 115,
137, 153). In both cases, prices being of the same locality appears
to guarantee some homogeneity. However, differences appear in
products under the same label and bought in similar measures,
which would point to hypothetical differences in quality.
3. Prices of several staples by regions, 1651–1800
This section deals with presenting and analysing the regional
series of some significant foodstuffs in Early Modern Spain. To stan-
dardize the series, weights and prices were converted to metric
measures and to grams of silver respectively. For monetary con-
versions, I adopted Hamilton’s equivalences for Castile and those
provided by Feliu for Valencia. The comparison of this last series
with Allen (2001) reveals significant discrepancies, with the rel-
ative position of prices in Valencia varying notably depending on
which is used
15
.
3.1. Wheat
Among cereals, the most complete series correspond to wheat.
The data for Old Castile-León comes from Mansilla, that of New
Castile from Casarrubios del Monte, for Andalusia from Seville and
for Valencia from the city of Valencia. Seville prices cover only
1650–1750, with prices for the other fifty years being taken to com-
plete the figure from Ponsot (1986), converted from harvest years
to calendar years by Feliu (1991, p. 28, note 15). However, I only
reproduce in the appendix Hamilton’s quotations (Figure 1).
The trends display similarity in broad terms; nevertheless,
regional differences in price behaviour are relevant. Price volatil-
ity in Valencia was significantly lower than in the two Castiles or
Andalusia, showing the advantage of coastal areas getting access
to the international wheat trade — although the role played by rice
as a substitute was pointed out to explain the case as well (Palop,
15
Feliu (1991, p. 21); Feliu (1991-1993). In Allen’s case “After 1650, the cal-
culated values are for 1719, 1726, 1739, 1740, 1754, 1764, 1777, 1781. The
rest are interpolated”. Allen (2001) in “Conversions, Sources and Comments”.
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/users/Allen/studer/valencia.xls.
1975, p. 431; Reher, 2001, pp. 549-551). With varying degrees, all
the series show a sharp downward trend from the mid-17th cen-
tury, which would last until approximately 1716–20 (1721–25 in
the North). Afterwards there was a period of relative stability until
the start of the 1760s, when prices rose significantly, in spite of
showing a slight downward movement during the seventies. From
a comparative viewpoint, during most of the period, Valencia had
the steepest prices; within Castile, the lowest were those in Man-
silla. The great similarity in regional price behaviour made Ánes
speak of the existence of a Castilian price, highlighting the unifor-
mity of the cyclical and long-term movements of Hamilton’s prices
for New Castile and Segovia (Ánes, 1970, p. 205, footnote 6). Llopis
and Sotoca (2005, p. 249) placed the beginnings of grain market
integration in Castile before the mid-18th century, despite a slow-
down in this process in the last decades of the century, and Reher
(2001) also found this trend during the same period. In the Mediter-
ranean area, price integration (interpreted as similarity in cycles,
long-term trends and price levels) appears to have been some-
what higher than in Castile. To paraphrase Ánes, it is likely that
a Mediterranean price for wheat existed too (Figure 2).
3.2. Legumes
Legumes were an important part of the working class diet. Broad
beans, beans and chickpeas provided people with plenty of calories.
However, details on their prices are less plentiful. Geographically,
the relationship between prices of different types of legumes,
and thus consumption, varied. On the Cantabrian coast, bean use
expanded associated with maize and they were clearly cheaper
than chickpeas
16
. In the Mediterranean, the fragmented data for
Valencia does not allow deep analysis, but the same relationship
between chickpeas and beans seems to apply with somewhat less
marked differences. In Castile, the available evidence suggests that
differences in prices between chickpeas and beans reduce as we
move inland. Although the evidence is sketchy, the most affordable
16
Fernández de Pinedo (1974, pp. 173, 215); Lanza García (1991, p. 16). Although
prices oscillated year to year, in the Basque Country beans and broad beans were
between two and three times cheaper than chickpeas. I am grateful to Santiago
Piquero for this information.
E. López Losa / Investigaciones de Historia Económica - Economic History Research 9 (2013) 75–87 79
1651-55
1656-6
0
166
1-65
1666-70
1671-7
5
1676-80
1681-85
1686-90
1691-95
1696-00
1701-05
1706-10
1711-15
1716-20
1721-25
1726-30
1731-35
1736-40
1746-50
1751-55
1756-60
1761-65
1766-70
1771-75
1776-80
1781-85
1786-90
1791-95
1796-00
1741-45
Murcia Valencia Barcelona
200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Figure 2. Wheat prices in Barcelona, Valencia and Murcia. Grams of silver per hectolitre.
Source: EHP-MWS. Box 7. Santo Tomas, prices/commodity worksheets; Feliu (1991, pp. 50-51); Caro López (1985, pp. 262-263).
legume in the Peninsula was the broad bean, sold at prices nearly
half (and many times less) of those of chickpeas almost everywhere.
Hamilton included only chickpea prices in the Seville and New
Castile series, but he also gathered scattered evidence of prices
for other places and legumes. For the Seville series, he used and
interpolated prices from three hospitals. Whatever the case, the
difference between them was small and the resulting series is
consistent. In contrast with Hamilton’s method, I worked out the
quarterly average of all the entries, irrespective of their provenance,
and subsequently calculated the annual price and the result is still
very similar. The only notable difference is that while in the primary
worksheets there are no chickpea prices for the years from 1756 to
1769, the typewritten series does contain data. It is not possible to
ascertain their origin from the information available; nevertheless,
I have made use of them thanks to their apparent reliability.
In the case of New Castile, Hamilton wrote in his notes that he
had to use numerous substitutes in order to complete the series
and recognised that the ratios employed might not be reliable
17
.I
assembled a new series for New Castile from quarterly averages of
all the entries collected no matter what the source, to later calculate
their annual average. Despite the geographically distinct origins,
the new series seems coherent and differs little from that calcu-
lated by Hamilton (see Appendix A2). For Valencia the few chickpea
prices recorded make it difficult to construct representative series.
However, while they should be considered provisional and sub-
ject to improvement, they may be a useful reference for comparing
with other locations. The series for Castile and León was compiled
from quarterly averages (and later yearly) of prices in several, many
times distant, locations throughout the region; consequently, as in
Valencia, the final result should be treated with caution and as being
provisional (see Appendix A2).
Chickpea price movement in Andalusia and the two Castiles
is fairly similar. From 1720 prices in Seville and Toledo started
increasing, at first faster in Seville, then converging towards the
end of the century. Taking the years 1721–25 as base 100, prices
rose in New Castile to 219 in 1766–70 and 224 in 1796–1800. In
Andalusia the increase was not so steep at first, increasing to 142
in the 1760s and to 224 for 1796–1800; prices went up at a similar
rate in Old Castile-León, to 173 and 224 for these five-year periods.
17
EHP-MWS, Box 19. Research Cards.
The comparison between wheat and chickpea prices shows that in
Andalusia and New Castile both cycles and trends are very similar
up until the mid-18th century for the latter and the last decades
of that century for Seville, when wheat prices started rising faster.
In Old Castile-León, however, the opposite occurred: wheat went
up more quickly than chickpeas during the second half of the 18th
century. If we confine ourselves to price levels, the data leave us in
no doubt: New Castile prices were the highest (Figure 3).
As far as other legumes, the only existing and really con-
sistent series is for dried beans from Casarrubios del Monte, of
which Hamilton published data for the 18th century; that has been
extended backwards to the last years of the 17th century. Even
though they are fragmented and very provisional, it is possible to
present bean prices for León and Valencia, with the addition of a
short series from Valladolid from 1750 onwards
18
. With all due
precaution because of the nature and the provisional status of the
available evidence, bean prices would resemble those of chickpeas,
with New Castile prices again being visibly the highest. Unfortu-
nately, there are hardly any entries regarding broad beans allowing
us to build any series among Hamilton’s papers. As it was a very
cheap, widely consumed legume all around the country, it would
be of great interest to increase the geographical stock of prices to
add to those of Feliu (1991) for Barcelona and Sainz Ripa (1985) for
Logro
˜
no (Figure 4).
3.3. Mutton
Mutton was one of the most appreciated meats of the time in
Spain, with prices commonly higher than those of beef. Despite
its relatively high cost and being tied to middle and high-income
consumers, some references seem to place mutton consump-
tion as being greater than beef and other meats over a large
part of the country. In the 1730s, Zabala y Au
˜
non estimated
consumption in Castile – excluding the Basque Provinces – to
be 50% mutton, a quarter beef and a quarter goat (Zabala y
Au
˜
nón, 1732, p. 58). In Madrid, for 1796–1801, Ringrose gives
18
Archivo Histórico Nacional (AHN), Clero Secular Regular, Libros 16901 and
16919. Monasterio de San Joaquín y Santa Ana.