Portuguese peasants in the beginning of the 14th century were generally well-fed and economically well-off

It is well-known that agrarian output is a reflection of the effort of the peasant working his land and utilizing his other resources. However, it also hinges of the size of the actual plot per farm. The larger the plot, the more effort has to be invested in transportation to and from the peripheries of the farm in order to work the land. In a frontier economy – where agrarian output stems from newly acquired plots with plentiful land to develop – it stands to reason that intensive working of the immediate surroundings of the new farm plus the possibility (if need be) of expanding production can be very fruitful. Consequently such farms yield a higher income per capita, than where the peasants (because of population pressure) are induced to farm extensively, utilizing outlying plots of land with diminishing returns/per capita as a result. This is especially the case where a concentric redistributive plan is adopted with plots radiating from the centre (as might often have been the case in the Alentejo after the final reconquista in 120 – 1230.)

A new article – presenting work-in-progress – presents a set of interesting reflections on a  benchmark for Portuguese agrarian output for the 1311-20 decade. This benchmark is built from the supply side, using the value of ecclesiastical tithes, and tested with macro and micro level demand-side information.

Compared with existing estimates for contemporary England, real Portuguese per capita agrarian output appears high. This result challenges the received wisdom that by 1320 Portugal – busy repopulating the conquered depopulated southern regions – was hard-pressed by a demographic crisis. Instead, it confirms that by 1320, Portugal was a ‘frontier economy’ with a high land/labour ratio and a high per capita output level. Portuguese peasants were generally well-fed in the beginning of the 14^th century as compared to e.g. England.

The paper uses a model for converting the revenues of the church tithe into the net agrarian product developed on the basis of accounts of the tax-revenues from the beginning of the 14^th century, developed by a Portuguese historian, António Henriques. The results indicate that the proposed model does a better job in estimating the agrarian product than the usual method of multiplying the yield of the tithe tenfold. Through application of this model, António Henriques shows the relative affluence, which dominated Portugal in the decades before the Black death.

The work is part of a general project aiming at reworking Medieval Portuguese Agrarian History in a comparative perspective.

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