The Agrarian Economy of the Region of Évora in the First Half of the 17Th Century (1595-1660): An Exploration of Main Indicators

This article tries to establish the chronology and dynamics of the 17th century economic depression in the region of Evora, in Southern Portugal. By examining a set of key variables -vital statistics, prices of foodstuffs and farm rents- the onset of the depression is located in the last decade of 16,h century, and its continuation up to 1660 is attested. A number of attempts to recovery are detected, but all of them were checked by poor harvests, sometimes joined by plague and war. On the whole, high prices of foodstuffs appear to be associated with signals of depression in the behaviour of other variables. This seems to indicate that these price increases were supply-driven, rather than demand-driven, weighting heavily on the incomes of most families, whereas small farmers were unable to take advantage of these seemingly favourable conjunctures.