El Estado en los campos. La regulación del cultivo del arroz en la España del siglo XIX

The role of the state in nineteenth-century Spanish economy has been very controversial and has generally received negative judgments. This article tries to evaluate the intervention in the regulation of rice cultivation. Justified against malaria, this regulation encountered great difficulties to be applied until it consolidated the new state apparatus after the liberal revolution, because of local resistance and administrative constraints. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, the state introduced legislation that would live in time and was widely respected. Thus the state showed a certain autonomy from social interests and set up measures that had an impact on improving population health.