Agrarian development and state building in Spain: the contest for irrigation in the Valencian Region, 1770–1860

Abstract A determined expansion in the productive capacity of Spanish agriculture was a fundamental and contentious objective during crisis country’s ancien régime formation liberal state, years transition from eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. In this study we examine reorientation that occurred an ambitious project for irrigation region Valencia. region, characterised by well-rooted commercial agriculture, original scheme, initiated enlightened aristocrat well connected with royal court, would be profoundly altered one political regime another. The irrigated area increased much more than had been anticipated, very diverse sections social hierarchy eventually benefited agricultural expansion. contrast, control exercised over canal himself increasingly questioned context century.