SOCIAL STRATIFICATION IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR OF SPAIN:

A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF CENSUS DATA’

PylANm GARCIA FERMNW

Uniwsi&d Aut6mma of Modiid

This study is part of a longer one that cannot be completed until all the data from the 1972 Spanish Census of Agriculture is published. For now, the initial census figures that have been published only permit us to determine and set forth some of the most relevant features of the patterns of social stratification in the agricultural sector of Spain.

The fact that we used census data in the present study compels us to follow the objective method in order to determine social stratifica- tion, and to by-pass subjective and reputational methods. Besides, given the wide cultural and historical diversity of the Werent regions that constitute Spanish society, a study attempted to apply the latter two methods in an analysis covering the whole country, would require such a wide range of resources that we doubt whether there exists in Spain an organization that could provide them. For these reasons, the investigator must use secondary data to determine the existing strata and to quantify each one.

H I S T O R I C A L A N T E C E D E N T S

The Werent historical events that contributed to determining the present stratificational profile of Spanish society, only reenforced the traditional system of land ownership; this system came into existence during the Middle Ages and consolidated during the XIXth century, by means of civil and ecclesiastical “desamortizaci6n”.a The process of “desamortizaci6n’y was fundamental in determining the transition from a society with a segnorial or feudal structure - one that had remained so until well into the XIXth century - to a society with a capitalistic structure. (Sim6n Segura, 1973).

108 Manttcl Garcia Fern&

Ownership of land was radially divided into latifundia and mini- fuadia; this process obeyed the law of capitalist concentration and it created two opposing types of landowners, the large landholders, owners of vast extensions of land, and the poor laadowners, (Vicens Vives, 19j 3, p. j 83), peasants constantly threatened with prole- tarianization in years of poor harvest, who progressively were added to the reserve army of cheap industrial labor.

Even though the system of landownership has stayed almost the same right up to the present time, it is also true that industrialization, which had developed enormously in Spain starting with World War I and which was interrupted during the ‘30’s and the ‘40’s because of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), substandally remodelled the stratifica- tion system of Spanish soaety in general and of rural society in particular. In the decade of the ‘60’s both emigration and the decline in rural population have produced a mpid expansion in the industrial working class, and the new middle class has become more important than the old one. (Giner, 1968, p. 23).

At the present time it is no longer possible to talk about Spain as an agricultural country, as do some authors that have published manuals on the Spanish socioeconomic structure as recently as 1969 (Flores, 1969, p. 31). Although in 1950, the most largest group in the active population was s t i l l that of unskilled farm workers who made up 23% of the total, (Foessa, 1970, p. 5 37), in 1970 this group only accounted for 7,9%. Without a doubt, this decrease represents the most fundamental change in the transformation of the occupational pyramid in Spain.

But not only has the proportion of agricultural workers decreased, but also the number of s m a l l and middle farmers has decreased at the same rate. All of these changes have brought into existence an occupa- tional pyramid that, according to the Werent authors who have dealt with the topic, adopts a form that varies within the following limits:

High . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 %

Po=, ‘970, p. 138).

Medium . . . . . . . . . . . * 4 H O % Low . . . . . . . . . . . . p 4 j %

This type of classification usually combines occupation, income and class indentification in order to arrive at a composite index. But such a method tums out to be very difticult to apply when it is a question of studying the d and agricultural sector of soacty, especially because of the lack of appropriate data. In the case of the Spaaish

Socia/ strahj%ation in tbe apinJtUtal sector of S p i n 109

Censuses of Agriculture, unfortunately we Cannot echo Professor LYM Smith when he says “the (American) Censuses of Agriculture are replete with the kind of data essential for through-going studies of social stratification and the class systems in the United States”. (LYM Smith, 1969, p. 4 9 ) . We are forced therefore, to be more modest in our saent5c pretentions in studying the stratificational system of Spanish Agriculture, since we lack such fundamental data as the distribution and quantity of agrarian income.

Various studies on rural Spanish communities, that have been made recently, show a wide diversity in stratification among Spanish villages. A diversity that goes from the dual structure of the capitalist and latifundist zones to the continuum of stratification in the rural zones where there exists a betta balanced distribution of land. (Aceves, 1973; Mira, 1974; Moreno, 1973; PCrez Dh, 1974). Nevertheless, almost all of these studies, agree that although landownership con- tinues to be the determining criterion of the stratificational system, is it no longer the only due; and that is increasingly true the more diversified the economic system is. What is true is that the phenomc- non of part-time agriculture (which data from the 1972 Census of Agriculture provides for the first time in Spain) reveals the depth of the social revolution that is taking place in the rural areas.

G E N E R A L D I S C U S S I O N O F THE I972 CENSUS O F A G R I C U L T U R E

Some of the most sigr&cant data from the Census that we are dealing with are those that refer to the distribution of farmers according to whether their occupation and their principal source of income derives from agriculture or not. The figures are the following:

Total number of fiumers in Censu agricultural non-agricdtural

This dif€erence between the two types of farmers introduces another complication when we try to straafj the Spanish agricultural popula- tion, espeaally since we lack other data such as the nature of the second occupation, the quantity and type of income, all of which would have permited us to make the classification more precise. For this reason we have had to do without the criterion “dedication to agriculture” in our study, as we will see further on. Now, let us continue with the general discussion of the Census data.

In the period that transpires fiom the First Census of Agriculture

Farmers whose primary occupation i s

2.462.0749 I.Z87*IO2 (5292%) 1-174.172 (4784%)

I I 0 M a w 1 Gania Fmrurdo in 1962 to that of the Second in 1972, 3 19.1 o agriculnual enterprises have dsappared (see Table I). This figure gives us an idea of the rate of change in Spanish rural society. A more detailed look at the variation that has taken place in the distribution of farms according to theit size, reveals that the type of farm that disappears belongs exclusively to the category 0-jo hectares, while the number of huger farms, j o hectares or more, tends to increase.

0- 2.9 . . . 3- A9 - * .

I- 9,9 . . . 20- 29.9 . * . 30- 49.9 . * *

Ti ... 10- 69,9 . . . 70- 99.9 * 9 *

100-149.9.. . lI0-199*9.. . 2oo-299,9 . . . 300-499.9. * *

500-999.9 * . . 1.ooo + .. .

T, . . .

10- 19,9.. .

1.479.763 348.181 411.11 I 297.618 11*.9T7 82.481

2.73 1.8 I I

30.I73 20.170 16.163 7.846 8.638

6.148

102.043

1.896

4.609

-336.741

+ 17.19) ~~ ~

Total . . . 2.833.114 2.I14.004 -3 19-I I 0

Source: Census of Agriculture of Spain, 1962 and 1972.

We especially note the appearance of 373 new farms larger than 1.000 hectares over the last ten years. The law of capitalist concen- tration continues to be valid and we find it confirmed in the agricul- tural sector of present Spanish society. A study on the problems of minifundism in Spain made by Lynn Smith (1959, p. 140-149), toward the end of the jo’s is no longer valid in the decade of the ~o’s, due more than anything tlse to the fact that the rural exodus and the effective action taken by the National Service of Land Con- solidation are permitting a notable increase in the average size of farms.

The changes in the form of landholding have not been as radical as

Social stratzfiatioon in th agricultual sector of Spain 1 1 1

those in the distribution of enterprises according to size. The data that we present in Table z show that direct ownership continues to be the dominant form of landholding, although it has experienced a set back in 1972 in respect to its proportion in 1962.

TABLE 2. Dirh'bntian o j tbo Nationd SM+I accw&g to tbr Lrmd Holding Syrtemr, 1962 1972

LANDHOLDING SYSTEM

Ownership Rented' Partnership' men

Y*u SUP. % SUP. % SUP. :4 sup. %

1971 33.133.172 13.4 6.303.518 13.8 -60.764 45 3.714119 a,r 1961 33.109.306 141 j . j p j 9 1 11.4 j.i1z.z14 7,1 1 . 7 8 8 . ~ ~ 6,1

Source: Census of Agriculture of Spain, 1971 and I&.

Cash rent Standing and Share rent

On the other hand, the number of rented land (cash rent) has in- creased, which is due to the fact that many agricultural exploiters who have emigrated to the city continue maintaining their property rights on the land, although they lease them for cultivation to the farmers who stay. The lack of sufficient judicial and political norms to facilitate the transfer of land held by absent landowners to those farmers who continue working the land, is present at a factor that is retarding the modernization of Spanish agriculture, especially in minifundist zones. Having now analyzed the most relevant changes that have occurred in the social structure of the agricultural sector, let us go on to the study of its social stratification.

M E T H O D S A N D P R O C E D U R E S

The f is t task we completed was to determine the number of persons active in the agricultural sector for each province and region in Spain. The data from the 1970 Census of Population in Spain include a classification of the active population, which is the one we have used in the present study. This census differentiates 4 categories of active population in agriculture: I) Farmers with hired help; 2 ) Farmers without hired help and members of agricultural cooperatives: 3) Foremen and managers of agricultural enterprises and trained agrarian personnal or specialists; 4) The remaining agricultural

I12 M a n d Gar& F m d workers. As we see the 1970 Census does not differentiate between full time and part time farmers; this distinction does not appear until the 1972 Census of Agriculture. As a consequence, in the present study we will consider all of the farmers to be full time workers in agriculture. The approximate nature of t h i s study allows us to in- troduce t h i s error without its decting the validity of basic conclusions that we reach.

The second task was to class@ th is agricultural population ac- cording to s u a t a or class.' As far as the upper class and the working class were concerned, there were no doubts. In the upper class we put all those farmers that have hired help for their farms, in other words, category I fiom the Census of Population. The working class, in its turn, is made up of all of the untrained workers in agriculture. Om greatest difficulty was to distinguish between the various sub- strata of the middle class. With the help of the data on the distribution of farms according to size from the 1972 Census of Agricu~turr, we were able to overcome this difficulty.

In order to do so, we have compared the number of farmers with hired help to the number of larger sized farms. Perhaps if we offer a concrete example, it will be easier to explain the procedure followed. For u a m p l ~ in Cadiz, the number of farmers with hired help is 2. I I I. The dismbution of larger sized farms is the following:

size (hectares): zoo + 100-200 I0-9999 20-49,9

number : 701 43 3 687 1.199 If we assume that those farms owned by farmers with hired help are the largest, and that each fanner has one farm, in order to reach the figure Z,I I I (number of farmers with hired help) we should consider all of the farms that are over j o hectares, plus 290 farms fiom the 20-44,9 hectares interval (701 + 433 + 687 + 290). Regarding the 1.199-290 = 1.309 farms - we assume these belong to farmers who form part of the upper middle class. In this same stratum we have included all of the components of category 3, made up of technicians and agrarian managers. The middle-middle dass and lower-middle class are made up of the rest of peasants without hired help.'

In this way we have been able to quantify the different strata or agrarian classes and at the same time wc have been able to determine the sizes of the farms that are capable of being assimilated to each stratum or class.

Social stratifiation in tbc ag.icultural sector of Spain 1 1 3

RESULTS

With the object of gaining a wider perspective on a national scale we have grouped the results of our study of each province according to the different traditional regions. In the following chart we present the proportions of the active agricultural population according to the stratum or social class to which it belongs, following the method just described.

If we focus our attention on the figures for the working class, which in our opinion is the most significant indicator of the type of social stratification system, we see in Table 3 three kinds of stratification systems. In the most industrialized regions - Catalonia, The Cantabrian Coast and Aragon-Ebro - and in the regions characterized by mini- fundism - Galicia, Old Castile -, the figure for the working class oscilates around I j %. In more agrarian regions with latifundia the working dass makes up more than 50% of the total agricultural population. Between these two stratification systems there exists a third system which we could call intermediate and which corresponds to regions that share some of the characteristics of each of the other two systems.

TABLE 3. P m p r t w m cf tbr AgriwItnrd Popdation in Spzin. Chnfid ar belonging to tba Upper C ~ I , Upprr-Middlr, M~aUt-Middt and Lolvw-Middlr. and Working Ckr , b re8ion.t 1970.

Percentage of Population dassi6cd as

Upper Middle Lower-Middle Working Upper Middle-Middle

REGIONS' uass Class UW UaSS

114 Mannel Garcia Fcrranh

In this study we have not taken into account the inter-regional dif€crences within the same social class. The lack of sufficient data prevents us from pursuing this h e , but it is important to remember that a smal l farmer in the Catal0n.h region can enjoy a higher net income than that of an upper-middle class farmer in Old Castile. Inter-regional differences within the working class are also very remarkable, as we can see through the two following indicators. The salary of a full-time agricultural worker in Andalucia and Ga'icia was 193 pesetas per day in 1972, while in the Basque country it was 350 pesetas per day. The data on unemployment in agriculture is equally significant. In both parts of Andalucia the annual average of unem- ployment for 1972 was 29.800 workers which is 47,1% of total unemployment in Agriculture in Spain, while in the Cantabrian Coast region the estimated average unemployment for the same year was 160 workers. All of these data demonstrate once again the entirely approximate nature of the percentages that we are using. In order to get a greater perspecdve on the s o d stratification

system of the whole agricultural sector in Spain, we grouped the traditional regions into three large geographic areas which we will call Northern, Central and Southern, and which define in an approxi- mate way the three most important stratification systems in the entire nation:

Class

Middle Middle-Middle and Geographic Area' Upper Upper Lower-Middle Working

Northern 1.0 12.4 68.3 12,3

Gntd 1.1 1 6 4 4J.I 3 3 * 3 Southern 1,s I A 4 25-9 IA2

Three models of social stratification appear and they can be related to three difFerent levels of economic development. Thus, for example, if we classlfv the Spanish provinces according to the percentage of active agricultural population with respect to the total active popula- tion and, we reach the following conventional scale:

Stage or h e l of Development yo Active Ap'culttutl Popdaiion Sub-Industrial 3 1 + Semi-Industrial 2 5 - 3 4 Industrial I J - 3 4 Post-Ladusuial 0-14

Social stratifiation in the agricultwal sector of Spain *XI

In the Northern region we find almost all of the regions that have reached the Post-Industrial level (except for Madrid which is in the Central Region and has less than 10% of active population in agricul- ture); in the Central region we find most of the provinces that have reached the industrial level, while the Southern region is made up of most of the provinces that find themselves s t i l l at sub- or semi- industrial levels. One exception in the Northern region is Galicia, which is basically agricultural and rural, but, everyting considered, our classification is s t i l l valid.

As far as the size of farms is concerned, in the Central and Southern regions, the 5 0 hectares sized farm separates the upper stratum from the upper-middle stratum, while in the Northern region the breaking point is 20 hectares. However, the inter-provincial differences in quality of soil and type of agriculture are so great, that it makes it impossible for us to idenufy a manageable and consice pattern of distribution according to size of farm.

A hnal conclusion of this initial analysis of Census data could be, although at this time we do not have sufficient data to offer any proof, that the patterns of social stratification of the Spanish agricul- tural population apparently depend more on the level of industrial development reached by each region than on their landholding systems. What can occur and in fact, what does occur in many Spanish provinces, is that the industrialized zones are also the zones that have a well-balanced system of land distribution. Conversely, in the provinces characterized by latifundia there exists a lower level of industrialization. All this leads us toward a future discussion about the influence of the land dismbution system on the indu- strialization process. Lack of data keeps us from pursuing this avenue although it certainly could be an initial hypothesis for future studies on the social stratification of Spanish society.

N O T E S

I am very much indebted to Maria Dolores Maravall, Honorio Opqao, Carlos Munoz and JoaC Luis Alonso, students of my course on Rural Sociology at the School of Agri- cultural Engineering of Madrid, for thek help in compiling the Census. h t a I am alsc very much indebted to -1 Nancy L. Aranguren for h a help in preparing the English vmion of this paper. * This refen to the sale of church and commune property. The main & m ~ of this procas waa to increase the posscsions of the urban bourgoise and to deprive the peasants of use c4 thek common land. ' The total labour forte in Spain according to the of Xg72 mounted to 12.430.000

perSOIl.3.

I 16 4 The tcnn class is used hae in a genaic scnac sincc we arc not attempting to study the dam structure of rural Spanish society. Such a study would rrquke more data on thc distribution of agnrivl income, and alw a study of the existing social c d c t a apccidy at the level of propiaon and unrkillcd workas. 6 It must be noted that upon comparing thc numba of fvmen without hired hdp with thc number of fnmu in the lower intmPL, the number of the latter far ucecdl the numba of famas in Lhc ccwua. This dXuence is explained by the existence of those part-time fvmcn who although thcy still carry OQ an agricultural amrprisc, are not counted in the c~lsus as agricultural population but rather aa person- active in thc -or in d c b they uvry out their principal activity. We have followed the clasai6cation that in our opinion p m a the di&rrncer in

structure u€ the various fonns of landholding throughout history. This chi6cat ion is also& by E. M?leblrit, R&maApwh9 R m k m ’ CmApuiMaloEspoiio&IS&&XX* Madrid, Arid, 1972. The provinca that rue included in each region arc the following: I. Galicia: La Coruiia, Lugo, Oreme y Pontcvcdra, z. COSP Candbria: Astunas, Santanda, V i y a y Guipkoa; 3. Nnvarra y Alan; 4 Angdn-Ebro: Logroiio, Huesc~, m g O P y T e d ; 1. Caul&: LkicqGaonq Barcelona y Tarragom; 6. Cpuih la Nuevl: Madrid, Guldal?jara y Cuaua; 7. Gstilla In Vieja: Le6n. Zynora, P.rleacin, B u r p , Soria, Segovia, Avila y Vhdol id ; 8. Val&: Cutd6n. Val& y Aliante; 9. Sudate: Mutcia y h e r i a ; 10. Extramdun: sI11pmnnq Ckra y Badajoz; 11. La Mancha: Toledo. Sevilh, Ckiiz, C6rdoba y Jnen; 13. Andpluda Oriental: M a p y GSWlda.

Nonhem: Galicia, CoQn Gndbria, GPluiin, An@n-Ebm. G n d : The two Gsti la , Valcncia, Sudate. Southern: The two Andalucias, Enremadun, La hhcha.

R E F E R E N C E S

A c m ~ s , JOSEPH, (1973). Cambio SocW 8n M Pwblo a% Elpaa, (Bardona: B a d ) . F ~ o a ~ s , XAVIEIK, (1969), Esmcrtw4 Soriorcodmka & lo AgricuItura Espniiolo, (Barcelona:

FOESSA, (x970), I n f m r Socidiogico mbrr lo ntwA mW a% Erpaiiu. (Madrid: Eunmtriu) G w , SALVADOR, ( I 968). Carrirrpitr mrdChgr: Tbr SacbJS&ut4%4th olSpah, (Univcnity

of Reading: Occasional Pubiiation no I). LYNN SMITH, T., (1919). Fngmenmtion of Agricultural Holdings in Spain, Rural k i o -

lOgY, +4 (21, 140-149. LYNN SMITH, T., (1969). A Study of Social Scratikation in the Agricultural rcctiona of

the U.S.: Nature, Dam, Procedures, and P r r l i m i ~ ~ Results, Rural Sociology,

~ ~ U W A U S , E, (197t), & f i 4 Agranky Rmki&~c~prnk tn htpoiZ4 &iSigio XX,

PCflkIlh)

34 (4).

(Madrid: Arid).

U b r u a I’abaat).

Anuhkix, (Madrid: Siglo XXI).

WRA, JOAN F., (1974), Un A ? ~ H & EAnh*@ SWW d POir V k i d , (Boncl~an:

MORENO NAVAMO, Ismono, (1972). h p u d d , Chrrr mriolrr y Hmn&r tn & B 4 4

P h x Dh. Vxcron, (1974). Pvrblarj C h s mriokr m 81 Cam@ Eqauikd, (Madrid: Siglo

Smm SEGUM, F.. (1973). La DumortkaA Eipdolo &I S@o XX. (Madrid: Innituto

VI- Vrvm, J., (1913). HLtmi. Ecmdmica & Erpda, (Bpicdonn: Teide).

W .

de kudioa F u W Hacienda).

Sociaf stratifiation in tbe apkd twa l sector of S'n 117 S U M M A R Y

A sociological analysis of two Spanish Censuses - 1970 Ccnsus of Population, 1972 Census of Agriculture - is made in order to straafv the agricultural sector of Spain. With the object of gaining a wider perspective on a national scale the results of each province were grouped on a regional scale. Three models of social stratification appear and they can be related to three Merent levels of economic development. A final conclusion is that the patterns of social stratifi- cation of the Spanish agricultural population apparently depend more on the level of industrial development reached by each region, than on their landholding systems. But since in almost all the Spanish regions, the industrialized zones are also the zones that have a well- balanced system of land distribution, a point is made on the influence of the land distribution system on the industrialization process.

R ~ S U M ~

I1 sera entrepris une analyse sociologiquc de deux recensements en Espagne - recensement dc la population de 1970 et, le recensement des agriculteurs de 1972 - pour pouvoir stratifier en couches le secteur agricole. Pour atteindre au niveau national unc autreperspective, les risultats de chacune des provinces ont iti centralises par region. Trois mod8les de stratification sociale apphssent et ils peuvent &re m i s en relation ?i trois niveaux d8irents du divcloppement tconomique. La conclusion finale est que le mod& de stratification sociale de la population agricolc espagnole dipend apparamment du nivmu du divcloppement industriel atteint dam chaque rigion que des relations des propriitis foncitres. Mais c o m e dans presque toutes les rigions espagnolcs, les zones industrialiskes montrent un systkme bien iquilibri de distribution de la tcne, on est conduit h diduire une influence de la distribution de la terre sur les processus de l'indusuialisation.

Z U S A M M E N P A S S U N G

Es wird eine soziologische Analyse von zwei Volksziihlungen in Spanien - dun Zensus von 1970 und dem Landwirtschaftszensus von 1972 - untemommcn, um den Landwirtschaftssektor in Schichten untertden zu konnen. Um cine weitere Pcrspektive a d natioder Ebene zu crrcichen wurden die Ergebnisse jeder einzelnen Provinz in

118 M a n d Garcia F e r r d

einer regionalen Tabelle zusammengefasst. Es lassen sich drei Grund- formcn einer sozialen Schichtung feststekn, und diesc komen mit drei verschiedenen Ebenen der okonomischen Entwicklung verglichen werden. Als abschliel3endes Ergcbnis h s t sich sagen, da13 die Schichtungsmuster in der spanischen Landwirtschaft anschcinend mehr von dcm Stand dcr industriden Entwicklung in der Region abhkgen, a l s von den Grundbesitzverhdtnissen. Da aber in fast d e n Regionen Spaniens die industtialisimen Zonen cin wohlausgcwogenes System der Landvertdung adweisen, wird auf einen m6glichen Einfiuss der Landverteilung auf den Industrialisierungsprozess hingewiesen.