Estimaciones de población dedicada a la pesca y navegación marítimas en Galicia a partir de los estados de Matrícula (1740-1830)

Abstract

The registers of seamen constitute an essential document in order to quantify professional sailors-fishers. If we consider concealments, poaching, desertions, exceptional authorization given to Petty Officers and farmers-fishers -in the face of a great deficit of authorized labourers, as a consequence of extraordinary fitting out-, our valuation of workind population is deduced basically by adding to the "qualified" sailors (those fit for service) and to the "youngsters" (young men under eighteen) a percentage of: a) veteran and disabled men who were employed in the activities we are dealing with; b) boys under fourteen/fifteen who helped in certain tasks. The official recount shows the unquestionable primacy of galician fishing (in labour and fleet) in the wholw of Spain; at a second level, a substantial unbalance in the weight of these activities between the four Galician provinces can be estimated.