This methodological manual provides basic information to estimate the net primary productivity (NPP) of historical and contemporary cropland, in terms of fresh and dry matter, and gross energy. The methodology and the proposed conversion factors can be applied to any region of the planet, with...

This paper shows the potential of the Social Metabolism approach to study the industrialization of the agriculture. It provides information about the physical functioning of agrarian systems over time and their spatial differences. It also sheds light on how the industrialisation of agriculture...

The purpose of this paper is to provide interested researchers with a simple tool to evaluate the efficacy of different methods of fertility replenishment that have accompanied and made possible the contemporary agriculture. We propose a nutrient balance model created especially to be applied to...

This working paper provides a compilation of statistics on international wine consumption, production and trade from the mid-nineteenth century until the beginning of the Second World War. The statistical data is structured in three parts dealing with consumption, production and trade both at...

In this paper we propose a cross sectional study of some of the variables involved in major crops present in Seville's field during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This represents a comprehensive treatment and undifferentiated from each of the crops. The principal element is constituted...

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...

The aim of this study is to analyse the management of rural estates during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century using basically the expenditure registered in bookkeeping records. The information collected proceeds from eight private archives, and from them we have...

Costa Rica has been a great example of the neoliberal approach to agricultural policy implemented during the last two decades in most Latin American countries. Costa Rica shifted from import substitution industrialisation (ISI) to export-led growth and what the government and international...

From 1860 the Spanish agricultural sector has gone through an intensive process of development resulting in important structural changes, not only in the sector itself, but also regarding the relationship of the agrarian system with natural resources. These changes were closely related to the...