Agrarian institutions and economic growth : was the sale of baldíos responsible of the Castilian agrarian crisis at the end of sixteenth century?

The traditional literature about the Castilian agriculture has interpreted the sale of baldíos as one of the main causes of the decline of Castile during the seventeenth century. The sale obligated the peasant to buy the land if he wanted to continue working on it. Many of these lands were marginal and poor soils, so the growth of production cost would have led many farmers to the ruin and poverty. Many of them had to migrate to other regions, causing a deep fall of agriculture production, the main production activity of Castile's economy at that period of time. This paper shows that Castile entered in decadence not because the baldíos were sold but because the reasons inviting people to use more land and to increase production during the first half of the sixteenth century disappeared around 1590. Instead of seeing exclusively the new costs faced by the farmer after the sale, this paper explores what happened with revenues from plowing more land. Baldíos was an institution that helped an increase of production through expansion of land and labor. Who was the owner of these lands seem to be indifferent in order to explain the amount of production factor used on agriculture. If baldíos was not the reason that provoked a huge migration in the Castilian countryside, then, who was the responsible?. Problems to maintain the returns from agriculture, and not the unexpected increase in the price of land, were the real cause of the final crisis at the end of the sixteenth century

SPANISH MONARCHY´S MONETARY PROBLEMS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY: SMALL CHANGE AND FOREIGN CREDIT

It is well known that the Spanish Monarchy found out some problems in its monetary system. So far, almost all the studies have been concentrated in the billon problem and inflation. However, small and large silver coins had also problems to circulate together in Castile. Without small change, among other consequences, it was more difficult to carry out small transactions and without large denominations the credit borrowed by the king to foreign bankers was more expensive. These problems were endogenous to the Castilian monetary system based on precious metals. Those problems were aggravated with the inflation of copper currency and the new war scenario in Flanders during the seventeenth century. The Monarchy took decisions against the market in order to avoid those problems. These measures did not solve the problems, but they affected the fineness of the currency, the price of transactions and the relationship between the Council of Finance and its foreign bankers. Theory helps to explain why those problems were intrinsically related to the Castilian monetary system. New historical evidence shows that the outcomes of the Crown’s solutions to control the number of small coins and to eliminate any premium on large coins are in line with predictions of new developments in monetary theory.

Agrarian institutions and economic growth : was the sale of baldíos responsible of the Castilian agrarian crisis at the end of sixteenth century?.

The traditional literature about the Castilian agriculture has interpreted the sale of baldíos as one of the main causes of the decline of Castile during the seventeenth century. The sale obligated the peasant to buy the land if he wanted to continue working on it. Many of these lands were marginal and poor soils, so the growth of production cost would have led many farmers to the ruin and poverty. Many of them had to migrate to other regions, causing a deep fall of agriculture production, the main production activity of Castile's economy at that period of time. This paper shows that Castile entered in decadence not because the baldíos were sold but because the reasons inviting people to use more land and to increase production during the first half of the sixteenth century disappeared around 1590. Instead of seeing exclusively the new costs faced by the farmer after the sale, this paper explores what happened with revenues from plowing more land. Baldíos was an institution that helped an increase of production through expansion of land and labor. Who was the owner of these lands seem to be indifferent in order to explain the amount of production factor used on agriculture. If baldíos was not the reason that provoked a huge migration in the Castilian countryside, then, who was the responsible?. Problems to maintain the returns from agriculture, and not the unexpected increase in the price of land, were the real cause of the final crisis at the end of the sixteenth century.

Spanish monarchy's monetary problems in the seventeenth century : small change and foreign credit.

It is well known that the Spanish Monarchy found out some problems in its monetary system. So far, almost all the studies have been concentrated in the billon problem and inflation. However, small and large silver coins had also problems to circulate together in Castile. Without small change, among other consequences, it was more difficult to carry out small transactions and without large denominations the credit borrowed by the king to foreign bankers was more expensive. These problems were endogenous to the Castilian monetary system based on precious metals. Those problems were aggravated with the inflation of copper currency and the new war scenario in Flanders during the seventeenth century. The Monarchy took decisions against the market in order to avoid those problems. These measures did not solve the problems, but they affected the fineness of the currency, the price of transactions and the relationship between the Council of Finance and its foreign bankers. Theory helps to explain why those problems were intrinsically related to the Castilian monetary system. New historical evidence shows that the outcomes of the Crown's solutions to control the number of small coins and to eliminate any premium on large coins are in line with predictions of new developments in monetary theory.

Microstructural optimization of unalloyed ductile cast irons with a ferritic matrix used in the manufacture of wind turbine rotors

The aim of this work was the microstructural optimization of cast irons with nodular graphite for the manufacture of wind turbine hubs, paying preferential attention to the geometry and distribution of graphite spheroids to ensure the required mechanical properties for this application. The target was pursued based upon microstructure-properties correlation, in an environment of great competitiveness and exigency marked by current international standards. The methodology followed consisted of the generation of knowledge from tailor-made industrial castings, followed by the analysis of their microstructures, in order to extract valuable conclusions for the production process through the use of statistical analysis. The approach method employed was a Fractional Design of Experiments (DOE) with 7 factors, 16 experiments and resolution IV. The samples from each experiment were cubes of identical geometry, and designed to match a surface-to-volume module equal to 4 cm (1.57 in) found as the highest values in real hubs of 3 MW power wind turbines. It is concluded that the use of nodulizers with traces of lanthanum favour the reduction of the volume fraction of pearlite, although La has proved not to promote the spherical shape of primary graphite. The negative effect of pre-inoculants containing SiC on the spheroidal morphology of graphite has also been verified, and also that low-Mn bearing scrap favours graphite formation and the reduction of the volume fraction of pearlite, in spite of being a carbide forming element. The whitening effect of Mn was minimized with low carbon equivalent melts