La molineria hidràulica al País Valencià (segles XIII-XIX)

Bona part dels esforços de la historiografia s’han dirigit a plantejar interessants hipòtesis sobre la funció desenvolupada pels molins en les societats medievals o bé a esbrinar els trets tecnològics dels casals. Això explica que tant l’etapa de l’Antic Règim com els aspectes econòmics continuen essent a hores d’ara una immensa incògnita, raó que justifica dedicar-los una major atenci

El ejercicio de la autonomía local en las acequias de la huerta de Valencia: la olvidada imbricación municipal (siglos XIII-XIX)

The aim of this paper is to show that rather than the municipality and the crown playing no role in water management in the Huerta de Valencia (the fertile farming lands around the city of Valencia), they were in fact political authorities that were heavily involved in this decision-making. I argue that it was a formally somewhat different way of exercising local autonomy due to the particular features of municipal power in the big city, which was the capital of the kingdom, but not for that reason was it more comprehensive than in the rest of Valencian irrigation channels. In addition to not being a radically specific exception as is often suggested (“management by autonomous user enterprises” as opposed to the other model of “municipal control”), neither was it an immutable formula. It was subject to a process of early demunicipalisation which, based on more direct and intense involvement of the capital’s council in the 13th and 14th centuries, gradually took hold and culminated in the 18th century bylaws, codes that consecrated the previous practice of governance of the irrigation channels of the Vega by an elected oligarchic board.El objetivo del presente artículo consiste en mostrar que ni el municipio ni la corona fueron instituciones ajenas a la gestión hidráulica realizada en la Huerta sino, por el contrario, instancias políticas imbricadas en la toma de este tipo de decisiones. Sostengo que se trató de una modalidad de ejercer la autonomía local formalmente algo distinta, debido a las características particulares que presentaba el poder municipal en la gran urbe que era la capital del reino, pero no por ello mucho más completa que en el resto de acequias valencianas. Además de no ser una excepción radicalmente específica, como suele presentarse («gestión por entidades autónomas de usuarios» contrapuesta al otro modelo de «control municipal»), tampoco fue una fórmula inmutable. Estuvo sujeta a un proceso de desmunicipalización precoz que, desde una participación más directa e intensa del concejo de la capital en los siglos xiii y xiv, fue afianzándose hasta culminar en las ordenanzas dieciochescas, códigos que consagraron la praxis previa del gobierno de las acequias de la Vega por parte de una junta de electos oligárquica

The objective of equity and the criterion of proportionality in the Valencian water institutions (16th-19th centuries)

En las últimas décadas se ha generalizado el uso de los conceptos equidad y proporcionalidad, aplicado al análisis de sistemas hidráulicos en general y a los valencianos en particular, pero de tal manera que resulta difícil atribuirles un significado unívoco. Se mantiene cierta ambigüedad que debe ser resuelta ¿Qué entendemos por proporcionalidad? ¿A qué elementos del manejo del agua se aplica? ¿Cuál de las acepciones del vocablo equidad debemos emplear en cada caso?: ¿imparcialidad?, ¿justicia comunitaria legitimadora?, ¿igualdad?, etc. En las páginas que siguen se trata de ofrecer una panorámica que ayude a clarificar cuáles han sido las connotaciones de estos términos -y de la noción que subyace implícita- desde tiempos medievales hasta las conceptualizaciones que figuran en los textos comienzos del siglo xx. En dicho seguimiento diacrónico, se intenta probar la existencia de influencias y nexos entre autores; también desvelar el efecto producido por diversas preconcepciones ideológicas. Con ello se pretende, además, poner de relieve que existen sutiles análisis institucionales, elaborados mucho antes de que cuajara la Nueva Economía Institucional, que merecen ser desempolvados, ya que permiten una percepción precisa de las complejas entidades hidráulicas comunitarias que funcionaron en el litoral mediterráneo, logrando altos niveles de cohesión social, así como notables grados de eficiencia agrícola, hídrica y organizativa.In the last few decades the use of the concepts equity and proportionality, applied to the analysis of water systems has been generalized, in particular among the Valencians, although in such a way that it is difficult to give them a univocal meaning. There is still a certain amount of ambiguity that must be resolved in terms of what exactly do we understand by proportionality? What specific elements of water management does it apply to? Which meanings of the word equity should be used in each case? Impartiality? Legitimizing community justice? Equality? etc. In the following pages, an overview is given that helps to clarify what the connotations of these terms and the implicit underlying notions have been - from medieval times until the conceptualizations that appear in the texts at the beginning of the 20th century. In this diachronic follow-up I try to prove that influences and nexus between authors do indeed exist; I also strive to reveal the effect produced by various ideological preconceptions. In this way, my intention is to emphasize the fact that there are subtle institutional analyses, produced long before the New Institutional Economy emerged, which deserve to be recovered and valued seeing as they help get a specific idea of the complex community water institutions that operated on the Mediterranean coastline, and obtained high levels of social cohesion, along with significant levels of agricultural, water and organizational efficiency that give an accurate perception of the complex water institutions

Los conflictos por el agua en el País Valenciano durante la etapa feudal: el ejemplo de los molinos

In places like the Valencian Region, where the climate is arid, the flow rate of the rivers is irregular, and irrigation is essential if agrarian returns are to increase, the way water was distributed among irrigators often gave rise to clashes between them. This paper begins with an analysis of the mechanisms that were used in the irrigated areas of Valencia, during the feudal era, to prevent these kinds of conflicts from getting out of hand. It then focuses on the disputes that arose between farmers and millers. Contrary to what is usually claimed, there is no decisive evidence to show that the millers were a permanent cause of such troubles, which only reached a dangerous level of intensity in certain places at certain time

Consideraciones acerca de la "hidráulica feudal" desde la perspectiva de los molinos valencianos (siglos XIII-XVIII)

The enormous economic and social importance of water on the Mediterranean coast adds significance to the theoretical frameworks employed in explaining water uses. It is rewarding to compare monographs on mills in feudal Valencia with the proposal drawn up by Miquel Barceló (and followed by the “agrarian archaeology” group). Their statement of general approach has helped to conceptualise data, yet case studies published since 1988 suggest the need for a new appraisal of this topic. Water use in feudal societies cannot be analysed with no theoretical framework to guide it, using empiricism alone, nor can its foundations be a mere appendage of Andalusian water systems. Institutional features, such as local control based on communal cooperation, flexible operating mechanisms used to distribute water flows, consensual rules for irrigators, and the formulas employed to limit the enormous potential for conflict over water are important when examining the social strategies adopted. It is therefore imperative to launch a discussion of the challenge of building a family of models that shed light on the features of feudal water systems in the Mediterranean. Given its usefulness in attracting the interest of researchers to the critical study of constant institutional adjustments, the proposal by Arthur Maass and T.E Glick should play an important role in addressing this complicated matter

Los conflictos por el agua en el País Valenciano durante la etapa feudal: el ejemplo de los molinos

In places like the Valencian Region, where the climate is arid, the flow rate of the rivers is irregular, and irrigation is essential if agrarian returns are to increase, the way water was distributed among irrigators often gave rise to clashes between them. This paper begins with an analysis of the mechanisms that were used in the irrigated areas of Valencia, during the feudal era, to prevent these kinds of conflicts from getting out of hand. It then focuses on the disputes that arose between farmers and millers. Contrary to what is usually claimed, there is no decisive evidence to show that the millers were a permanent cause of such troubles, which only reached a dangerous level of intensity in certain places at certain timesMills, Water, Irrigation, Valencia, Spain.

Les qüestions per l’aigua al País Valencià durant l’etapa feudal: l’exemple dels molins

Els conflictes entre moliners i regants han estat sobrevalorats per la historiografia, que dóna per cert que la lluita pels cabals (tinguda com de caire tècnic i, per tant, indefugible) generà constants i intenses baralles.1 Al País Valencià, en lloc de greu conflictivitat «estructural», potser siga més clarificador postular que l’alt potencial d’interferències resultà limitat en la pràctica, tant en les comunitats islàmiques com en les feudals, per mecanismes atenuadors que permeteren una compatibilitat asimètrica d’usos —no exempta de topades—. Àdhuc resulta raonable la hipòtesi que predominà una complementarietat mútuament profitosa entre l’ús agrícola de les aigües i l’energètic. En tot cas, més enllà de la desigual freqüència i vehemència dels antagonismes, errarien si contemplàrem aquestes disputes com una mera lluita pels cabals fluents, ja que es tractà d’una col·lisió econòmica d’un abast molt més ampl