ECONOMY AND SOCIETY     

In Aragón, as in all the West medieval, the ground went the base of the Production and of the social relations. Of her, besides the ganadería, the aragoneses obtained the majority of their Substento. Both they satisfied the basic needs of the individual: bread, came, meat, milk, firewood, dress and Lighting.

The implements and useful of work were primitive, as it corresponds to the under technological level of the Moment. The old Roman plow was employed, dragged by Yuntas of oxen and mulas. Still in 1275, among the goods of the castle of Sesa -señorío dependent of the cathedral of Huesca-, four plows are cited, eight metallic grilles, eight hoes, three sickles for it reaps, two podaderas, three yugos, three albardas, three trillos, four peaks, two chisels, a Hachuela and several palas and gallows.

It calls the attention the progressive one construction of mills, that they are generalized in numerous Populations aragonesas. They were the "farineros", generally hydraulic mills that evidence it obliged Vocation cerealística of the people on the field medieval.

The employed systems of cultivation were the year and time, alternating sown and barbecho, and to times themselves They left the ground more years in barbecho. As basic cultivations They emphasize the cereals and the vine. Of the first there was great Diversity: wheat, ordio, oat, mijo, centeno. With great human effort -to prepare the ground, to sow, to certify, to weed, to reap, acarrear the grain, trillar and to fan, among Other- the performances were very low. In the years of abundant crop were collected, by hectare, seven hundred kilograms of wheat and thousand two hundred fifty of barley; They were performances understood among the 3/5 for 1.

 

THE VINEYARD, THE OLIVARES AND THE GANADERIA

The vineyard reached an unusual diffusion (in zones suburbanas, in baldíos) and It modified substantially the agrarian landscape aragonés. In this epoch attended itself the whiteness of a production adjusted to the demand, that was very important in the case of the it came, since next to the bread was the alimentary base of the Population.

It went also notable the presence of the Olivo, whose prensado was carried out in the almazaras. There was great consumption of oil, as food and flammable for the Lighting. They completed the diet the cultivations of the garden and the trees frutales, as well as the linares and cañamares, Of great contribute to the industry textil.

Carpenters of the artesonado of the Cathedral of Teruel

During this time, besides, was produced an extensive process roturador that modified in part the landscape Agrarian previous and it intensified the production. This process it was in intimate connection with the advances territoriales of the Kingdom, that permitted an offering renewed of ground. The deep worry by the supply of water and the aprovechamiento of the previous epoch irrigation systems, It diversified the production and originated some conflicts.

Since the origins of the Kingdom, the ganadería it had great importance in the economy aragonesa of the centuries XII and XIII. Indispensable for the diet, was it also for the transportation, the laboreo of the fields, the dress and the footwear, and still in the intellectual field, therefore the scripture itself plasmaba in vitelas and pergaminos extracted of the Skin of the animals.

Of its importance is good sample the birth in the century XIII of institutions related to the traffic of the cattle, as the alera foral, the ligallo or the facería; or the important groups of cattle raisers, as the Houses of cattle Raisers of Zaragoza, Tauste and Ejea, the Ligallos of Teruel, or the Cofradía of Shepherds of Letux.

 

THE ACTIVITIES ARTESANALES AND COMMERCIAL

The progresses of the craft and the commerce were intimately related to the renacer of the urban communities, phenomenon of singular trascendencia that characterized to the Christian world Western of these centuries. The cities aragonesas, that they maintained the retícula urban of Moslem epoch, they went the center of distribution of the products manufacturados in They. In good measurement went also the nuclei of redistribución of the agricultural production since, besides of the stores and obradores, permanently open, they counted on two efficient instruments: the fairs and the Markets.

In the cities of the Kingdom (Huesca, Jaca, Monzón, Barbastro, Zaragoza, Tarazona, Borja, Calatayud, Teruel, Daroca, Alcañiz, etc...) concentrated the Activities artesanales and commercial of the Kingdom.

These cities offered, besides, a various range of services that understood since the religious (churches, chapels, monasteries, cemeteries and including mosques and sinagogas), until the sanitary (baths, barbershops, hospitals, leproserías), without forgetting its function of provision (markets, ovens, obradores, stores, etc ...).

Representation of distinct positions in the artesonado of the Cathedral of Teruel

 

Likewise, each time was greater the number of persons that they were not dedicated exclusively to the Tasks agrícolas. Its distinct professions and positions, symptom unmistakable of the growing one especialización, are good sample of the importance reached by the diverse sectors Of the production artesanal.

To measurement in which new ground, with important urban nuclei, went incorporating to the Kingdom, the society aragonesa of the centuries XII and XIII was articulated in systems more complexes than it simplified society estamental ("los that they pray, the ones that fight and the ones that Trabajan"). Given that the ground was the main fountain of wealth and of being able, the society aragonesa itself vertebraba in two groups antagónicos, own of the feudal system imperante In all the West medieval: mister and rural.

 

THE SOCIAL ABYSS AMONG MISTER AND RURAL

The misters They were owners of some ground that did not cultivate. They dominated the productive system with some measured extraeconómicas and they had the obligation of defending the Kingdom, collaborating efficiently with the directrices proposed by the own one Monarch. Upon having a preferably military occupation, its paper will be essential in a society as the aragonesa, in Permanent state of war. Besides, by nature or by royal concession, enjoyed personal privileges and Territoriales, and of fiscal exemptions. They obtained a part of the production of the campesinado through mechanisms Ideological and of strength. They were, therefore, the political minority Leading and the dominant social group of the Kingdom.

Inside this group nobiliar of large Proprietary notable differences are appreciated. In the plan more high of this social structure, whose peak occupied for right divine the monarch, were found the condes and barons of the Kingdom (the "ricoshombres"), and that barely they were a dozen of lineages.In a lower plan they were the infanzones, that they were noble of Lineage and had the obligation of serving militarily the king. To change, the monarch rewarded his services. In Aragón, these infanzones were able to be of lineage or hermunios, of letter And of population. The young men (originally, persons that fought to horse) finished being identified with the noble of lineage and had also distintan Military obligations.

Young men in battle. Artesonado of the Cathedral of Teruel

 

The Church and its members they performed, besides the functions strictly religious and spiritual, other of ideological character and economic of first order (its political importance went scarce in Aragón), and an inestimable social work of aid Upon needing and of cultural contribution. As a group was a group privilegiado, since enjoyed legal advantages And, above all, economic. Nevertheless only the bishops, abades and maestres of the military orders, they had High levels of income, in function of the charge that they performed. The majority, the under clero, although it enjoyed generic privileges of the group to the one that it belonged, lived in some modest conditions, with levels Of very low income and practically without any patrimonio.

 

THE RURAL PEOPLE AND THE SMALL LAYERS SOCIAL

In the other extreme of the ordenamiento social were situated the rural, shepherds, artisans and small urban merchants, That they lived exclusively themselves their job. They were the producing direct of the material goods and, without doubt, the More numerous group of the Kingdom. They lived in a manifesto State of dependence facing the mister. Nevertheless, the abundance of ground to colonize since half of the century XII benefited, without doubt, the social condition of these Rural. They paid a tribute high, that is able To be situated around the 30% of its production.

In the cities, in spite of that good part of the population was occupied in activities agrícolas, each time was greater the contingent one of neighbors that was employed in own activities of the secondary sector, craft and Commerce mainly. They were legally free peoples, that they lived on their job but whose economic situation was similar to that of the peasants, since were also Integrated inside the feudal framework imperante in the epoch. In the cities appeared new dominant social groups: the oligarquías terratenientes and commercial, that They had the control of the concejo. Without doubt, the progresses of the urban life complicated and they diversified the society Aragonesa of the century XIII.

In spite of that legally they did not have the condition of aragoneses, two groups minoritarios of sling raigambre labored for centuries in the ground of the Kingdom: mudéjares and Jewish. Finally, one must cite to the poor, very abundant in the epoch, the patients, elderly, leprosos, gafos, slaves, prostitutas and tafureros, a variopinto fan of peoples marginadas, but that also they formed Part of the society.