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Cooperation, technical education and politics in early agricultural policy in Catalonia (1914–24)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Jordi Planas
Jordi Planas*
Affiliation:
University of Barcelona
*
Email: j.planas@ub.edu
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Abstract

After the crisis of the late nineteenth century, the role of the state in European agriculture expanded to many new areas: education and technical innovation; commercial policies and market regulations; farm support policies, and sometimes interventions in property rights. The development of these policies was a difficult and costly process, without the intervention of intermediary organisations like agricultural cooperatives and farmers’ associations. This article analyses the early agricultural policy in Catalonia (Spain) and the role of cooperatives in its implementation. It argues that this regional case was quite exceptional in the early twentieth-century Spanish context, where state intervention in agriculture was extremely limited. In 1914, an autonomous government was set up in Catalonia, and a modern agricultural policy was introduced in which technical education and cooperatives played a crucial role, as well as politics. The agricultural policy promoted and developed by the Catalan government was part of a state-building project based on a regionalist ideology.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , October 2020 , pp. 211 - 222
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Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Notes

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17 From 1915 to 1917, about 8,000 farmers had participated in forty-seven courses organised by the Upper School of Agriculture. See Casanovas, ‘L’ensenyament agrícola’, p. 93.

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23 Galí, A., Història de les institucions i del moviment cultural a Catalunya (1900 a 1936) (Barcelona, 1982), Vol. VI, p. 7 Google Scholar.

24 Ibid. Alexandre Galí (1886–1969) was a prestigious teaching expert who participated in the Mancomunitat’s educational services of and later, in the 1930s, in the new regional Catalan government.

25 Three hundred agricultural associations and nearly two hundred municipalities from all over Catalonia had supported the Conference, many of them sending two or three delegates (Agricultura, 20th May 1919).

26 Agricultura, 5th May 1919.

27 Rendé, J. M., Pla d’organització social agrària de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1924), p. 5 Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., p. 8.

29 Ibid., p. 10.

30 In 1924, this was the case in Berga, Manresa, Martorell, Girona, Vilajuïga, Banyoles, la Bisbal, Cervera, Tortosa, Conca de Barberà, Alt Camp. The last two were created in 1916 and 1919 with Rendé’s direct intervention. See Rendé, Pla d’organització.

31 Ibid., p. 10.

32 In his view, the motto of the Catalan farmers should be ‘Association, Federation and Confederation’ (Agricultura, 20th June 1919).

33 When it was founded, on 12th July 1931, the Union of Agricultural Syndicates of Catalonia grouped together most of the existing agricultural cooperatives: that is, more than five hundred out of the eight hundred in operation at that time (Agricultura i Ramaderia, 15th July 1931). On this confederation, see Ribas Banús, M., La U.S.A. de Catalunya (Universitat de Barcelona, 1974 Google Scholar).

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42 For instance, in 1922 the Viticulture and Oenology Service provided assistance to seven cooperative wineries (Falset, Guiamets, Bellmunt, Ripollet, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Rubí and Igualada), which produced fifty thousand hectolitres. See Mancomunitat, L’Obra Realitzada, p. 467.

43 Ibid., pp. 477–8.

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48 AHPB, Mancomunitat, Assembly acts, 4th session of the 14th meeting, 26th February 1921, p. 83.

49 Casanovas, J., ‘La Mancomunitat de Catalunya i el foment del sindicalisme agrari (1919–1923)’, in Barrull, J., Busqueta, J. J. and Vicedo, E., eds, Solidaritats pageses, sindicalisme i cooperativisme (Lleida, 1998), p. 407 Google Scholar.

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53 AHPB, Mancomunitat, Assembly acts, 2nd session of the 14th meeting, 24th February 1921, p. 35.

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55 La Terra, 5th July 1924. See Pomés, J., La Unió de Rabassaires (Barcelona, 2000)Google Scholar and J. Planas, ‘La Unión de Rabassaires y el cooperativismo’, Ayer (forthcoming).

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60 Josep Mestres was head of the department of agriculture from 1914 to 1919 and Pere Mias from 1919 to 1924. Mestres, a doctor, was born to a well-off farming family, and participated in the organisation of several agricultural cooperatives; Mias was a lawyer as well as the largest landowner in his municipality, and he personally managed his agricultural estates. See also Balcells et al., La Mancomunitat, p. 389.

61 Mancomunitat de Catalunya, Projectes d’acord presentats a la tretzena reunió ordinària de l’assemblea i acords que recaigueren (Barcelona, 1920), p. 15 Google Scholar.

62 AHPB, Mancomunitat, Assembly acts, 4th session of the 14th meeting, 26th February 1921, p. 79.

63 Colomé et al., ‘The rabassaire struggle’.

64 In 1933 Pere Mias was appointed head of the Department of Agriculture and Economy, and Josep Mestres also had responsibilities in this department.