La difusión del maíz y las transformaciones en el sistema agropecuario del dominio cisterciense de Alcobaça, siglos XVIII y XIX

Abstract

Maize production introduced deep changes in the mixed-farming economy of Alcobaça’s territorial domain. We analyse the impact of the redefinition of the productive areas, the priority given to irrigation and the necessary interventions of hydraulic engineering carried out in the fields, the limit put on herding animals and the development of stockbreeding, the suppression of traditional crops and the option for new criteria of mixed crops and crop rotation, the restructuring of areas for grain threshing, drying, storage and grinding, depending on the alteration of the dominant cereal, as well as the interference of the new plant in terms of rents and taxation and its impact on people’s diets. The diffusion of maize was very important to the monastery as one can see in the planning of cultivation areas and in the financial commitment that was needed to carry out hydraulic works, hence the adherence to the novelty testifying the capability of commercialisation and of making the domain profitable. The plant modified the landscape, intensified production interfering positively in the demographic sustainability, increased rents and revealed the adaptation capacity of the Ancien Regime’s agriculture.