The Modes of Land Tenure and Cession

FEATURES OF A MODEL OF SOCIAL CONFLICT IN THE RURAL WORLD OF TENERIFE UNDER THE ANCIEN RÉGIME: AN APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF EVICTIONS OF TENANTS AND TENANTS (17701833) THE MODES OF LAND TENURE AND CESSION AMONG THE AGRARIAN ELITES IN THE TRANSITION FROM THE OLD TO THE NEW REGIME: CHARACTERISTICS OF LEASING AND MEDIANERÍA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE AGRARIAN WORLD OF TENERIFE In this stage of transition from the Old to the New, the lease together with the medianería constitutes the contractual relationship to which the agrarian elites of Tenerife resort most frequently, and in particular the large landowners; other social groups inserted within the well-to-do classes of the agrarian world, rich farmers with a certain socioeconomic and political weight in the localities from which they originate, share their condition as small or medium-sized owners, with their activity as tenants.1 Certainly, leasing is one of the agrarian contracts for which these "powerful locals" lend a greater predilection. since this form of land tenure usually brings them some income that, complemented by other economic activities (tithe lessors, administrators, etc.),2 together with the income derived from the exploitation of their own properties, allow them to obtain economic benefits capable of placing them in an economic position, which, although it could be exaggerated to define it as privileged, It is by no means an excess to classify it as unburdened. Undoubtedly, the most sought-after leases were those that included land preferably dedicated to crops of internal self-sufficiency (the so-called "bread to sow" land, or those destined for the planting of potatoes and millet, etc.), given the vertiginous rise in prices during this period.3 In short, and although lease contracts are usually not very explicit when it comes to specifying which crops are to be used for cultivation, they are not usually very explicit when it comes to specifying which crops are being used for cultivation. The lands granted under lease, an extensive review of the notarial protocols of Tenerife, highlights a clear preference among the agrarian bourgeoisie for those properties that are dedicated to this type of crops of internal selfsufficiency, as well as to lands specialized in the cultivation of vines, a crop that was also likely to provide some profit for the nucleus of well-to-do farmers who worked as tenants. in addition to being in tune with one of the agricultural activities that the wealthy peasantry exercises most profusely, such as wine harvesters. The revival of the wine trade at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century as a result of the blockade with which Napoleon subjected Great Britain, stimulated this group to participate in this conjunctural boom, with great possibilities of obtaining important profits. A better understanding of the socio-economic reality that presides over the contractual relations of the agrarian world of Tenerife, forces us to make a distinction between those who make up the nucleus of large tenants par excellence, those who lease the properties belonging to the most significant large landowners of the Tenerife countryside (Marqueses of Torrehermosa y Acialcázar, Conde del Valle Salazar, Benítez de Lugo, etc.); and together with this small percentage of large tenants, a great majority of the individuals who engage in this activity lease small or medium-sized properties much smaller in size and importance than those mentioned above, most of which are plots owned by the regular or secular clergy. Either they are council properties or plots of land in the hands of sectors of the well-to-do peasantry or the commercial bourgeoisie, and even unrelated properties owned by the large landowners. It should be noted that in many cases these small and medium-sized properties subject to lease follow a specific economic strategy, they are properties that adjoin each other or that border plots whose owners are the tenants themselves; In this way, properties of a considerable extension are formed, susceptible, in any case, to offer a higher yield and a better exploitation, than a small or medium-sized property. Although it seems clear that the group of well-to-do peasants is the sector that brings together the majority of lease contracts, this does not mean that large landlords do not sometimes appear as tenants, although it is usually a rare phenomenon, usually linked to family ties and absenteeism.4 At the end of the Ancien Régime, The average length of leases is usually nine years, although the small core of large tenants are perpetuated year after year as such. However, the landowners of Tenerife are fully aware of this process, as they have no doubt that they are the wellto-do peasants, one of the few candidates who can guarantee the receipt of the stipulated rents, mainly because of their availability of goods and their economic power. All this highlights the preference of large landowners to concentrate the lease of their properties in individuals of proven economic sufficiency.5 The transfer of leased properties can be conditioned by the urgent need to obtain a loan, in this emergency situation they frequently resort to lenders,6 many of them in the ranks of the local "powerful". that is to say, of the well-to-do peasants who in some cases make up an authentic agrarian bourgeoisie or in other cases it is no more than a protobourgeois model.7 Various reasons facilitate access to this type of contract, such as: the emigration to American lands of peasants who owned small and medium-sized plots, who did not have enough cash with which to pay for their freight or that of one of their children or relatives.8 The bad news Harvests, which affect medium and small landowners more forcefully, force them to lease their land, in order to ensure a small income on which to subsist.9 Finally, the conditions or clauses that are specified in the vast majority of lease contracts constitute a good observatory to know some aspects about the characteristics of the agricultural techniques applied in Tenerife agriculture at this stage transition from the Old to the New Regime; But essentially, the clauses that comprise lease contracts illustrate the evolution and characteristics of contractual relationships between landlords and tenants. In fact, one of the most common requirements for all leases is that: "(. ) that the precise and necessary work be done, in due time and season, so that it increases and does not receive arrears." It is also the obligation of the lessee to develop a wide range of improvements to the land, which are specified in detail in the leases; This is the case, for example, of the construction of walls, particularly in those properties whose orography has a steep slope, as the aim is to prevent rainwater from washing away the farmland at all costs. Other of the most frequent contractual obligations in lease contracts relate to the deforestation of mountainous land or the planting of a specific number of fruit trees; As for the payment of rent, it had to be made only once a year, during the summer months, mainly in August, the time usually for harvesting crops, in such a way that the owner increased the chances of ensuring the receipt of the stipulated rent. In addition, it was included among the duties of the lessor to pay all taxes, pensions and charges with which the leased property was encumbered. In cases where the rent or part of it was fixed in cash, it should be fixed in "good silver or gold coin, usual and current". On the other hand, when part or all of the rent was paid in kind, the tenant was obliged to deposit it in the owner's houses or barns, which resulted in freeing the landlord from any type of investment in transport or haulage, which is clearly a facet that denotes the owner's strategy of restricting investment in his properties to a minimum and maximizing profits, which is more significant, since the owner's residence was located at a great distance from where the property in question was located. From a social perspective, the lease has a marked family character, mainly among the most important tenants, fathers and sons succeed each other in the lease of the same land, even when the head of the family dies, the widows of the lessors are directly responsible for fulfilling everything agreed in the original lease contract10. In any case, the sons who succeeded their parents in the lease of land did so jointly and severally and kept the system of exploitation together. Some historians have seen in this process, something like a replica of the incipient bourgeoisie to the institution of the mayorazgo, since by keeping the family united, it could maintain or in its case increase the strength and economic power and ensure and guarantee the lease, avoiding any kind of shocks. On the other hand, the contractual relations between landlords and tenants provide some slight "privilege" to the most important tenants, a "privilege" that is necessary to guarantee the continued participation of the most solvent tenants, since the landlords were aware that they were practically the only ones who comfortably guaranteed the timely payment of rent. For all these reasons, tenants are given absolute freedom so that the tenants or day laborers who cultivate the leased properties can be evicted if the new tenant considers that the land is not being exploited with sufficient rigor and quality.11 On the other hand, the tendency of large landlords to concentrate them in the hands of a single tenant is also very clear in lease contracts. prohibiting any possibility of subletting at the same time, punishing its non-compliance with the penalty most feared by the tenant, eviction,12 since subletting constituted a high risk for the owner of the property, since this type of contract was likely to be in the hands of a peasantry with not excessive resources, whose economic capacity did not give security to the lessor, but rather a certain apprehension of the almost certain possibility of litigation in the relevant courts, which would entail perfectly avoidable expense and inconvenience. From the analysis of the different clauses that govern the lease contracts, the strategies of the landlord to avoid costs and obtain the maximum profit stand out, and at the same time it is evident the close dependence to which the settlers or tenants are subjected, to whom all possibility of initiative is nullified. cultivating the land according to the strict dispositions of the owner,13 in fact they experience from the very conclusion of the contract the threat of eviction, in short, the risk that the tenant runs is high, if he does not manage to make the payment of the rent in the stipulated time.14 In short, all these factors illustrate the strategy that the large owners developed at this juncture. This generally leads to the development of a clearly rentier mentality, a phenomenon that is more marked in the stages of economic contraction and uncertainty, as is the case of the period covered by this study.15 The enormous concentration of land ownership in Tenerife during the Ancien Régime, Thanks to the significant extension of the linked lands,16 it places renting as one of the few alternatives available to the most prominent families of the well-to-do peasantry with notorious aspirations of social advancement, and interested in participating in the speculative activities produced by the rise in the prices of food production at this juncture at the end of the Ancien Régime. The individuals grouped in this nucleus of well-to-do peasants, who in many cases made up a genuine agrarian bourgeoisie,17 were perfectly aware of the reality in which they found themselves, so Mr. Antonio García Abreu, draws part of these approaches through the description he makes of the socio-economic reality of his locality – Realejo de Arriba – at the end of the eighteenth century (1790): (...) This town has its foundation in the richest and most fertile terrain of the island, but very sterile for its inhabitants, because it is all, or at least the greater part, of the lands of majors and other peculiar strangers. And their neighbours reduced to two classes, one of peasants and the other of day labourers. And having risen the rents to the maximum, the poor peasant usually does not get half his income and in recent years, as is well known, they have been in debt for a long time, because even with a harvest as reasonable as the present one they have not been able to cover the arrears of debts.18 The medianería is another of the most common types of land transfer among the agrarian elites of Tenerife. Despite its importance, it is not usually found among official or public sources – mainly notarial protocols; as a result of the fact that, in many cases, this type of contract is usually stipulated as a verbal agreement between the owner of the land and the party wall, a characteristic that lasted in some places well into the twentieth century. A more accurate analysis of the medianería would necessarily lead us to an exhaustive consultation of the private archives, access that is not always easy for the historian. Still today, the work of Antonio M. Macías Hernández carried out in 1988,19 constitutes the main contribution to understanding the medianería in the Ancien Régime and particularly its impact on the lands dedicated to the cultivation of vines during the seventeenth century. As this author states, the significant extension of this type of contractual relationship in the seventeenth century responds to a well-planned strategy by the propertied class whose objective is to increase the profits of their farms in the stages of economic crisis, to minimize risk and investment while there is no other alternative, and, Finally, to make the mediator a sharer in the benefits of the exploitation, stimulate their level of productivity and reduce the social conflict inherent in any stage of economic crisis. On the other hand, for access to the medianería, individuals who were linked by ties of kinship were preferred, which was a guarantee of reproduction of this contractual regime, it also seems to be a condition to have a large family that guaranteed the performance of all the work in the field within the family framework. The impressions of the Personero del Realejo de Arriba, Antonio García Abreu, in a report prepared in 1790,20 corroborate the labour and social reality in which the dividing walls found themselves, in an area such as the Valley of La Orotava where their wine production reaches a production that rises to 52% of the island's total, Tenerife contributing 75% of the total regional production.21 The medianería after the wine crisis that profoundly affects the The economy of the archipelago since the seventeenth century, far from being a type of contractual relationship that falls into disuse, continues to be a model of cession of land practiced profusely by the propertied class,22 which is proof that this contractual relationship was highly beneficial to the owners with a minimum investment, and this despite the fact that as time went by, In many cases, the conditions required of the medianeros hardly vary and even become more onerous.