Town and Country in Pre-Industrial Spain
Cuenca, 1540–1870

This 1990 study of a hilltop town on the Castilian Meseta analyses its socio-economic structures in the context of the urbanisation of rural Spain.

David Reher (Author)

9780521201322, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 March 2012

352 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.52 kg

Originally published in 1990, this is an in-depth study of Cuenca, a hilltop town on the Castilian Meseta, from the middle of the 16th to the end of the 19th centuries. Dr Reher analyses its socio-economic structures in the context of the urbanisation of rural Spain, and shows how the history of the town is paradigmatic of the social, economic and demographic changes in urban areas of the Mediterranean basin. Based on many hitherto unpublished Spanish sources, this book was the first of its kind to come from the Iberian Peninsula. It aims to be relevant to any scholar interested in the general experience of urban development and relations with the countryside in early modern Europe. Specialists in social, economic and demographic history, historians of Spain and historical geographers will be interested in this book.

List of tables
List of illustrations
Preface
1. Towns in historical perspective
2. Growth and decadence of a Castilian hill town
3. Demographic dynamics in an urban context
4. Economic fluctuations and demographic behaviour in urban Spain
5. Dearth, death and epidemics: towns in times of crisis
6. Household and family in Cuenca: a question of perspective
7. Mobility and migration in pre-industrial Cuenca
8. A culture of mobility
Appendix
List of references
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]