Agricultural History Review, Volume 54 Part 1 (2006), p. 182

Spain is a very mountainous country. Within Europe, its average height above sea level – around 600 metres – is exceeded only by Switzerland and Austria. Fernando Collantes’ nicely crafted monograph analyzes the diversity of mountain regions within the peninsula, along with their demographic experiences over the last century-and-a-half. From the 1860s, all of Spain’s highland zones experienced population decline at some stage. Before the 1950s, this decline was most clearly visible in relative terms, vis-à-vis the expanding conurbations of Madrid and the periphery. After that date, however, rural decline was more pronounced, reaching its climax during the country’s industrial boom of the 1960s and early 1970s. The main reasons for this overall demographic decline, Collantes argues, are to be found in the nature of the country’s economic development. Rejecting the paradigm of mountainous areas as self sufficient, Collantes views them, first and foremost, as part of the spatial division of labour. In particular, nineteenth-century Spain witnessed the demise of those activities, such as livestock farming, in which its mountainous zones enjoyed either absolute or comparative advantages. At the same time, certain upland areas benefited from the diffusion of non-agrarian activities, not least mining and later tourism. Initially, a great deal depended on the economic strategies of peasant families. With the spread of manufacturing industry, many districts of the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Cordillera saw their economies radically transformed due to the expansion of coal mining – a phenomenon which, he maintains, is best seen as the diffusion of industrialization from Catalonia and the Basque Country. At this stage, labour relations moved out of the family sphere, whilst the inhabitants of the mountains became increasingly subject to entrepreneurial and political decisions taken some distance away.

Why did these zones become depopulated? And, more importantly, how do we account for the marked disparities between Spain’s mountainous regions? Here Collantes emphasizes the close correlation between the phases of demographic evolution and the phases of Spanish economic growth. Before 1950, the possibilities of emigration from the mountains came up against a number of important obstacles. These included the slow rate of urban demand for unskilled labour, together with low levels of national economic growth. Other obstacles, including high levels of illiteracy, as well as the long distances from industrial areas, were of particular significance in the south. In certain areas, among them Cantabria, the situation was not all that desperate. Yet, from the 1950s, as welfare conditions deteriorated in the mountains, the higher wages that could be earned in western Europe or in Spain’s burgeoning industrial centres set in motion a growing rural exodus, eased in recent times by in-migration.

In geographical terms, Collantes outlines the experiences of Spain’s four great mountainous zones. Firstly, in the north, ecological conditions favoured the pursuit of cattle farming, based on small-scale units using family labour. At times of least demand, family members performed additional tasks, some of which took them away from the mountains for long periods. From the end of the nineteenth century, the area also witnessed the rise of temporary emigration to Latin America. In addition, the region benefited from a growing demand for livestock products from the cities, high rainfall, and good communications. It also saw the emergence of important mining and industrial zones, such as Mieres (Asturias) and el Bierzo (León). Secondly, Collantes argues, industrialization in the Pyrenees provoked constant tensions between the effects of polarization and diffusion. As sheep farming gave way – all too slowly – to beef and dairy cattle, the attractions of Basque and Catalan industry led to heavy population losses from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards. On the negative side, the profits to be had from coal mining soon proved disappointing to investors while, more positively, hydroelectric power in the river valleys of northern Catalonia partly accounted for the spread of textile colonies. A century later, the favourable geographical location of the Pyrenees as well as their natural conditions brought much-needed investment in tourism, not least winter sports. Thirdly, nowhere was demographic decline more marked than in the mountains of the interior. Before 1950, nearly all this area experienced depopulation due to ‘the weakness of its insertion into the new division of labour’. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century, the twin props of the interior zone’s pre-industrial economy, transhumant sheep farming and woollen textiles, were in sharp decline. Yet, unlike the Pyrenees, the zone was incapable of switching from sheep to cattle farming, due to its inadequate rainfall. Nor did the interior benefit greatly from diffusion, with a few exceptions like the timber industry of Soria. The proximity of Madrid completed the picture. Fourthly, throughout the period 1860–2000, the mountains of the south witnessed the smallest net loss of inhabitants. Despite the precariousness of its situation – high levels of mortality, low levels of consumption, mass illiteracy – the region’s population went up by almost fifty per cent before 1950. How was this possible? The answer, it would appear, lies with the continuous expansion of the region’s export base, centred on the so-called Mediterranean trilogy of wheat, wine and olives. After that date, illiteracy and the long distances to be travelled helped slow down the rate of emigration.

Finally, Collantes asks, wherein lies the rural drama of Spain’s mountainous regions? Is it due to depopulation, the consequence of poor welfare provision, or low standards of living? Was it brought about by the disappearance of traditional patterns of rural life, as a result of economic development, or conversely by the lack of it? In his opinion, the aim of the Spanish government’s rural policy should be not to re-establish past situations but to create new ones. Hence, this wellresearched and thoughtful book concludes, what the country needs is a number of different strategies for its mountainous regions, designed to address a variety of situations.