Caminos y caminantes: Los carreteros del Reino de Granada (s. XVIII)

Resumen

Knowledge of land transport in the Iberian Peninsula raises a key issue in order to understand, beyond the economy itself, the vital aspects that configure the means of production of the Early Modern, i.e. the development of means of transport, communication and storage. In Spain, it reaches its greatest exponent in the Crown's growing concern for the improvement of road infrastructures, the safety of the journey and in the territorial configuration of the Real Cabaña de Carreteros, as a judicial institution "Caminos y Caminantes: los carreteros del reino de Granada (18th century)" focuses on land transport and transport households in the kingdom of Granada. To this end, the information provided by the documentation of the Cadastre of Ensenada and of the Fund of the Subdelegation of the Privative Judge of the Real Cabaña de Carreteros of the Chancery of Granada, as well as other documentation from municipal archives, notarial protocols, road guides and travel literature, have been used. In the 18th century, the transport trades were registered employing different terminology. Hence, in this thesis, we have analysed the lexicon of those corresponding to the kingdom of Granada with the aim of correctly categorising the object of our study. Transport with beasts or cartsdepends to a large extent on the road infrastructures (roads and inns) and has an economic and social influence on transport households. In this context, carters, cabañiles, and muleteers have been identified and their number and location have been related to the attraction of the roads and/or economic poles. In addition, their work performance and complementarity with other activities have been studied, linking the data with the structure and size of the households, as well as with the life cycle of the muleteers, being aware that the muleteer household, together with the family and the neighbourhood, generate strategies for survival and heritage management. In this sense, questions have been raised about how gender acts in these transport households, where the role of women, whether they are heads of household, spouses or daughters, is fundamental for the household; or how class criteria act in certain groups, such as the transport cabins, where notable inequalities can be seen between those who own the cabins, the foreman and the cabañiles themselves. The study was carried out in detail in the region of Guadix and the town of Vera. In the latter, we have been able to verify the evolution of its households from 1752 to 1812. Finally, continuing with the economics of the transport business, we have looked at beasts, providing a case study in the Valle de Lecrín, through letters of obligation to pay and inventories, which provide us with information on the cost, type, market and negotiation strategies within and outside the domestic unit for the acquisition of this resource. The carriers were granted numerous privileges by the Crown during the Early Modern, constituting the Real Cabaña de Carreteros, Cabañiles, Jabarderos and Trajineros. After studying the general characteristics of these privileges, we have focused on the Juzgado Privativo corresponding to the Real Chancillería de Granada, in order to find out what its functions were, how it was organised and the main conflicts that were settled there. Finally, we have studied the problems of its jurisdiction, for which we have consulted data relating to the kingdom of Murcia, where the private justice of the Real Cabaña de Carreteros also acted with its own subdelegate.