Población, coste de la vida, producción agraria y renta de la tierra en Andalucía occidental, 1521-1800

Abstract

This first chapter has two fundamental objectives: on the one hand, to define the geographical framework that our study is limited to and indicate its main characteristics; and on the other hand, to quantify the human resources available within the territorial demarcation to be defined and to study its evolution from 1521 to 1800. For this last task, we will use the figures that emerge from different neighbourhoods and population censuses,as well as those taken from the baptismal registers of fifty-nine localities. By crossreferring data from both documentary sources, we will submit the always questionable population counts to reliability tests in order to, where applicable, correct their content upwards or downwards, as the case may be. Furthermore, we will pay special attention to the evolution of baptism rates by province, with the aim of unravelling the nature of the observed differences...