The negotiation of rules and state intervention in irrigation management: The Júcar Canal in the mid-19th century
The way the rules for distributing water work in irrigation communities has been the object of numerous studies. Yet, little is known about how the negotiation process that is required to design such rules has developed historically, which is what this article focuses on. Specifically, the case of the Júcar Canal, which was built in the 13th century and went on to become the largest irrigation system in Spain after undergoing an extension in the early 19th century. As a result of said extension, there were many clashes between the old and the new irrigators, the climate of cooperation between users diminished and it became necessary to draw up a new set of regulations. Two crucial factors a…
The price of improvements: agrarian contracts and agrarian development in nineteenth-century eastern Spain1
Fixed-rent contracts do not free landlords from the need to supervise the land if it is of high value and fragile fertility, nor do they free them from the costs of monitoring farmers if they are poor peasants prone to fall into arrears. In such cases, however, compensation for improvements will encourage tenants to farm with care and act as a bond against non-payment of rent. This article studies the repercussions of these kinds of situations by analysing what happened in nineteenth-century Valencia, where being the owners of the improvements led to tenants eventually becoming the owners of the land.