Such latifundia are partly worked as Large-scale farms by hired labour ers, partly let out to tenants. But the {enants are not better off than the labourers. For their rents are excessive, and besides, rent contracts generally' are for short terms only; 0 the tenant Iscks security and, consequently, credit. They are nelther able nor willing, therefore, to nvest capital for improvements. They ever overcome a life of somi-starvation. The farm labourers generally are hired for part of the year only and even then their wages are extremely low, not to speak of the miserable lodgings and the poor food, they are given by the masters.
The concentration of Iandownership has made steady progress; peasants who lost their land and "ejected tenants added to the glut of the rural) labour markets, Before the great depression, emigration offered a small outlet from the Spanish Inbour market; but now, the American countries, France' and Northern Africa have restric-ted immigration.
Spain's balance of population has] been overweighted even by immigration, The number of emigrants and immigrants developed as follows:— voar Be Ea, ie Agrarian Reform The only effective remedy would have been a thorough agrarian reform, to be combined with progress sive training of peasants and large investments, of capital for agricultural improvements, Nothing could be achieved, of course, by merely handing over the latifundia to the labourers and tenants; for while apparently the system' extorts excessive rents and pays extremely low wages, the root _of deplorable living conditions of Spain's peasantry Is obsolete farm management and lack of capital. There was_a_movement agrarian reform in Spain not tess than 160 years ago, when Charles 11T tried to introduce "internal colonization." But the landed interests have, always proved stronger than the reformers and successfully opposed change Tt is but natural that peasants and farm labourers became rebellious. Despair drove them to anarchism. When in "00 overthrown, professedly' among the most importa ant tasks of the Republicans. " But while the republican governments of the first two years of the Spanish. Republic did' not achieve much, Rightists got the upper hand in 1983) and they gradually abolished what little progress had' been made under their predecessors. When in 1936 the Leftists carried the election, the peasants rose to help themselves in. the beginning of this year. They took what they thought belonged them by right and repaid the wrongs! they had suffered, by depriving the Janded gentry of their property' rights, Agrarian Problems Protective Doctrines In the interior of Spain the soil is dry and stony. Cullivation, to a Tatge extent, would be impossible without the' protection of Spanish corn laws. - Through their effect, wheat in Spain is three times the: world market price. Still, cultivation was extended to land which cannot be cultivated with profit, at even this price, The Spanish peasant, therefore, lives a life of me-Ajeval squalor. He might be better off, if rural credit were properly organized. But if the peasant needs loan, in order to Improve his land, or to hold his products till the first seasonal rush of sales after the harvest has passed, he generally has to approach. private money-lenders: most of whom impose usurious terms their debtors, 'This loan business is the basis of "Caziquismo." 'The Cazique is the most powerful man In the village. either Jends money, himself, or acts fag middleman and guarantor' between the needy peasant and the money-ender. He takes good care to make the peasantry vote for whoever is his own political patron. Naturally hho fs a representative of landed interests.
But all over Spain, there prevails fan uneven and destructive system of land distribution, The peasant farms generally are so small that families can scarcely live on their yield. "Although in northwestern Spain, in Galicis, the pea sants, fo a large extent, are land Protection of agriculture in Spain was due to the powerful influence of the fanded interests, "Whatever small advantages may have scerned {o Tabourers and tenants was lest them again through exorbitant prices they had to pay for commodities produced by protected manufacture ting industries. Though Spain stil Isa country prevailingly rural, she has gone through a process of me dustrialization, since the opening of this century.
Spanish industries, however have grown under unusual conditions. They enjoyed double protection, intention ally by: subsidies, closely allied under the slogan of "protection" of labour and unintentionally by. cur-Feney depreciation. Spanish neomerantiiism: was initiated by the tari of 1892 and enjoyed a luxurious, growth In post-war times, 'At the World Economic Conference of 1927, a map of Europe was. shown on which the height of customs barriers was entered in bas-relief; with the sole exception of, Soviet Russia, Spain's great wall was' the highest in all Europe. But customs duties, subsidies, minimum price compulsory cartels and compulsory consumption of native goods were not enforced, according reasonable planning, but according to the political influence and the political connections of the Interested parties.
Added to these was the depreciation of the peseta currency. It began in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.