Book Chapter

Inequality in Early Modern Spain: New evidence from the Ensenada Cadastre in Castile, c. 1750

  • Esteban Nicolini
  • Fernando Ramos-Palencia

This chapter addresses income inequality by offering new evidence based on the Ensenada Cadastre, a unique database on Castilian households circa 1750. We find that inequality in 18th-century Spain was substantial, especially in urban and/or highly populated areas. There was also a positive – but somewhat weaker – relationship not only between inequality and per capita income but also between inequality and poverty. We posit that extreme economic inequality was likely responsible for numerous episodes of social conflict. Finally, the extent of formalized charity and social spending was less than in other Western European regions.

  • Keywords:
  • economic inequality,
  • economic history,
  • spanish economic history,
  • Iberian peninsula,
  • pre-industrial age,
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Esteban Nicolini

University of Madrid Carlos III, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-2078-6720

Fernando Ramos-Palencia

University Pablo de Olavide, Spain - ORCID: 0000-0002-4677-2730

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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Pages: 255-273
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2020 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2020
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Inequality in Early Modern Spain: New evidence from the Ensenada Cadastre in Castile, c. 1750

Authors

Esteban Nicolini, Fernando Ramos-Palencia

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.18

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Disuguaglianza economica nelle società preindustriali: cause ed effetti / Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: causes and effect

Editors

Giampiero Nigro

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

488

Publication Year

2020

Copyright Information

© 2020 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5

ISBN Print

978-88-5518-052-8

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-5518-053-5

eISBN (xml)

978-88-5518-054-2

Series Title

Datini Studies in Economic History

Series ISSN

2975-1241

Series E-ISSN

2975-1195

335

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