<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
  <teiHeader>
    <fileDesc>
      <titleStmt>
        <title type="main" level="a">Wealth inequality and land ownership before and after the Black Death. A quantitative analysis of peasant probate inventories from the Kingdom of Valencia (1283-1400)</title>
        <author>
          <persName n="1" ref="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1417-8523" type="ORCID">
            <forename>Luis</forename>
            <surname>Almenar Fernández</surname>
            <placeName type="affiliation">Complutense University of Madrid, Spain</placeName>
          </persName>
        </author>
        <respStmt>
          <resp>This is a section of <title>Socio-Economic Inequalities during the Conjuncture of the Fourteenth Century</title>(DOI: <idno type="DOI">10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8</idno>) by </resp>
          <name>Davide Cristoferi</name>
        </respStmt>
      </titleStmt>
      <publicationStmt>
        <publisher>Firenze University Press</publisher>
        <pubPlace>Florence</pubPlace>
        <date when="2025">2025</date>
        <idno type="DOI">https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.09</idno>
        <availability>
          <p>Available for academic research purposes</p>
          <p>Open Access</p>
          <p>Copyright Author(s)</p>
          <licence source="text" target="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">
            <p>Content licence CC BY 4.0</p>
          </licence>
          <licence source="metadata" target="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode">
            <p>Metadata licence CC0 1.0</p>
          </licence>
        </availability>
      </publicationStmt>
      <sourceDesc>
        <p>This is original content, published for academic research purposes</p>
      </sourceDesc>
    </fileDesc>
    <encodingDesc>
      <appInfo>
        <application version="2.2" ident="Booksflow">
          <desc>Digital edition XML powered by Booksflow</desc>
        </application>
      </appInfo>
    </encodingDesc>
    <profileDesc>
      <abstract xml:lang="en">
        <p>This article examines land ownership among Valencian peasants as a means of addressing internal wealth inequalities. Using a sample of 191 probate inventories from 1283 to 1400, we provide evidence of the number of plots owned by peasants, the size of their holdings, and the crops they grew. This provides a unique opportunity to explore inequalities in a period for which no tax records have survived. The study argues that before the Black Death there were significant inequalities among Valencian peasants across the kingdom, which appear to have increased in the fifty years after the plague in terms of land ownership.</p>
      </abstract>
      <textClass>
        <keywords>
          <list>
            <item>Middle Ages</item>
            <item>1283-1400</item>
            <item>Kingdom of Valencia</item>
            <item>peasantry</item>
            <item>land ownership</item>
            <item>probate inventories</item>
          </list>
        </keywords>
      </textClass>
    </profileDesc>
  </teiHeader>
  <text>
    <body>
      <p>It is available online at https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.09<ref target="https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0705-8.09" /></p>
      <div>
        <listBibl>
          <head>References</head>
          <bibl n="201114">
            <bibl>Alfani, Guido. “The Effects of Plague on the Distribution of Property: Ivrea, Northern Italy 1630.” Population Studies 64, no. 1 (2010): 61-75</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1080/00324720903448712</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201057">
            <bibl>Alfani, Guido. “Epidemics, Inequality, and Poverty in Preindustrial and Early Industrial Times.” Journal of Economic Literature 60, no. 1 (2022): 3-40</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1257/jel.20201640</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200806">Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis. “La cultura material de la alimentaci&amp;#243;n campesina. Consumo y niveles de vida en la Valencia bajomedieval (1283-1460).” PhD thesis, University of Valencia, 2018</bibl>
          <bibl n="200588">
            <bibl>Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis. “Explotaci&amp;#243;n y transformaci&amp;#243;n de recursos naturales para la fabricaci&amp;#243;n de cer&amp;#225;mica y vidrio en el reino de Valencia (siglos XIII-XV).” Universum. Revista de humanidades y ciencias sociales 37, no. 2 (2022): 399-416</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.4067/s0718-23762022000200399</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200698">
            <bibl>Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis. “Los inventarios post mortem de la Valencia medieval. Una fuente para el estudio del consumo dom&amp;#233;stico y los niveles de vida.” Anuario de estudios medievales 47, no. 2 (2017): 533-66</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.3989/aem.2017.47.2.02</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200784">
            <bibl>Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis. “Why did medieval villagers buy earthenware? Pottery and consumer behaviour in the Valencian countryside (1280-1450).” Continuity and change 33, no. 1 (2018): 1-27</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1017/S0268416018000061</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200595">
            <bibl>Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis, and Antonio Belenguer Gonz&amp;#225;lez. “The Transformation of Private Space in the Later Middle Ages: Rooms and Living Standards in the Kingdom of Valencia (1280-1450).” Journal of Urban History 48, no. 4 (2022): 782-806</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1177/0096144220967990</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200556">
            <bibl>Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Luis, Guillem Chismol Mu&amp;#241;oz-Caravaca, and Lled&amp;#243; Ruiz Domingo. “Aproximaci&amp;#243;n a la desigualdad econ&amp;#243;mica a trav&amp;#233;s de fuentes fiscales bajomedievales: Valls (1378), Sevilla (1384) y Palma (1478).” El Futuro del Pasado 8 (2017): 55-82</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.14516/fdp.2016.008.001.002</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="201084">
            <bibl>&amp;#193;lvarez-Nogal, Carlos, and Leandro Prados de la Escosura. “The Rise and Fall of Spain (1270-1850).” Economic History Review 66, no. 1 (2013): 1-37</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1111/j.1468-0289.2012.00656.x</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200573">
            <bibl>&amp;#193;lvarez-Nogal, Carlos, Leandro Prados de la Escosura, and Carlos Santiago-Caballero. “Economic Effects of the Black Death: Spain in European Perspective.” Investigaciones de Historia Econ&amp;#243;mica = Economic History Research 16, no. 4 (2020): 35-48</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.33231/j.ihe.2020.10.001</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200861">
            <bibl>Aparisi Romero, Frederic. “El cultivo y procesado del lino en el reino de Valencia (siglos XIII-XVII).” Espacio, tiempo y forma. Serie III. Historia medieval 33 (2020): 17-42</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.5944/etfiii.33.2020.25181</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200513">Bois, Guy. Crise du feodalisme. &amp;#201;conomie rurale et d&amp;#233;mographie en Normandie orientale du d&amp;#233;but du 14e si&amp;#232;cle au milieu du 16e si&amp;#232;cle. Paris: Presses de la Fondations Nationales de Sciences Politiques-Editions de l’&amp;#201;cole des Hautes &amp;#201;tudes en Sciences Sociales, 1976</bibl>
          <bibl n="200406">Congost, Rosa, i Rosa Ros. “Els inventaris de la gent humil: els treballadors de la regi&amp;#243; de Girona al segle XVIII.” En Els inventaris post-mortem. Una font per a la hist&amp;#242;ria econ&amp;#242;mica i social, ed. por Bel&amp;#233;n Moreno Claver&amp;#237;as, 63-86 (Fonts, 8). Girona: Universitat de Girona-Institut de la Recerca Hist&amp;#243;rica, 2018</bibl>
          <bibl n="200346">Furi&amp;#243;, Antoni. “Avant le cadastre. Les livres d’estimes du royaume de Valence au bas Moyen &amp;#194;ge.” Dans Estimes compoix et cadastres. Histoire d&amp;#39;un patrimoine commun de l&amp;#39;Europe m&amp;#233;ridionale, dir. par Jean-Loup Abb&amp;#233; avec la collaboration de Florent Hautefeuille, Bruno Jaudon, Jean Le Pottier, et Sylvain Olivier, 200-31. Toulouse: Le pas d’oiseau, 2017</bibl>
          <bibl n="200754">Furi&amp;#243;, Antoni. “Economic Inequality in Iberia before and after the Black Death: Valencia in the fourteenth century.” Paper presented at the XVII World Economic History Congress, Kyoto, August 2015</bibl>
          <bibl n="200387">
            <bibl>Furi&amp;#243;, Antoni, and Ferran Garcia-Oliver. “Household, peasant holding and labour relations in a Mediterranean rural society. The Valencian country in the late Middle Ages.” In Agrosystems and labour relations in European rural societies, ed. by Erich Landsteiner, 31-56 (Rural History in Europe, 3). Turnhout: Brepols, 2010</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.1484/M.RURHE-EB.3.2752</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200557">Furi&amp;#243;, Antoni, y Antonio Jos&amp;#233; Mira J&amp;#243;dar. “La ciudad y el campo.” En La ciudad de Valencia. Historia, geograf&amp;#237;a y arte de la ciudad de Valencia. Vol. 1, ed. por Jorge Hermosilla Pla, 227-44. Valencia: Publicacions de la Universitat de Val&amp;#232;ncia, 2009</bibl>
          <bibl n="200289">
            <bibl>Furi&amp;#243;, Antoni, Pau Viciano, Luis Almenar Fern&amp;#225;ndez, Lled&amp;#243; Ruiz Domingo, and Guillem Chismol. “Measuring economic inequality in Southern Europe: the Iberian Peninsula in the 14th-17th centuries.” In Disuguaglianza economica nelle societ&amp;#224; preindustriali: cause ed effetti / Economic inequality in pre-industrial societies: causes and effect, ed. by Giampiero Nigro, 169-201 (Datini Studies in Economic History, 1). Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2020</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.36253/978-88-5518-053-5.14</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200929">Garc&amp;#237;a Marsilla, Juan Vicente, ed. Espacios de vida. Casa, hogar y cultura material en la Europa medieval. Val&amp;#232;ncia: Publicacions de la Universitat de Val&amp;#232;ncia, 2022</bibl>
          <bibl n="201013">Genicot, L&amp;#233;opold. Comunidades rurales en el Occidente medieval. Barcelona: Cr&amp;#237;tica, 1993 (ed. or. Baltimore (MD): The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990)</bibl>
          <bibl n="201406">Guinot, Enric. “Morvedre. Hist&amp;#242;ria d’una vila valenciana medieval.” Bra&amp;#231;al 35-6 (2007): 95-134</bibl>
          <bibl n="201204">Mazzi, Maria Serena, e Sergio Raveggi. Gli uomini e le cose nelle campagne fiorentine del Quattrocento. Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1983</bibl>
          <bibl n="200774">
            <bibl>Mira J&amp;#243;dar, Antonio Jos&amp;#233;, i Pau Viciano. “Arrendaments i parceries. La gesti&amp;#243; indirecta de la terra al Pa&amp;#237;s Valenci&amp;#224; (segles XIV-XV).” Anuario de estudios medievales 32, no. 1 (2002): 481-500</bibl>
            <idno type="DOI">10.3989/aem.2002.v32.i1.242</idno>
          </bibl>
          <bibl n="200407">Moreno Claver&amp;#237;as, Bel&amp;#233;n. “Els inventaris post mortem catalans a l’&amp;#232;poca moderna: caracter&amp;#237;stiques, punts forts i punts febles.” En Els inventaris post-mortem. Una font per a la hist&amp;#242;ria econ&amp;#242;mica i social, ed. por Bel&amp;#233;n Moreno Claver&amp;#237;as, 37-61. Girona: Universitat de Girona-Institut de la Recerca Hist&amp;#243;rica, 2018</bibl>
          <bibl n="201268">Overton, Mark. “English probate inventories and the measurement of agricultural change.” A.A.G. Bijdragen 23 (1980): 205-15</bibl>
          <bibl n="200898">Overton, Mark. “Probate inventories and the reconstruction of agrarian landscapes.” In Discovering past landscapes, ed. by Michael Reed, 167-94. London: Croom Helm, 1984</bibl>
          <bibl n="201000">Overton, Mark, Jane Whittle, Dean Darron, and Andrew Hann. Production and Consumption in English Households, 1600-1750. London-New York (NY): Routledge, 2004</bibl>
          <bibl n="200498">Riello, Giorgio. “Things seen and unseen. The material culture of early modern inventories and their representation of domestic interiors.” In Early Modern Things: Objects and their Histories, 1500-1800, ed. by Paula Findlen, 125-50. London-New York (NY): Routledge, 2013</bibl>
          <bibl n="201316">R&amp;#246;sener, Werner. Los campesinos en la Edad Media. Barcelona: Cr&amp;#237;tica, 1990 (ed. or. M&amp;#252;nchen: Verlag C.H. Beck, 1985)</bibl>
          <bibl n="200883">Scheidel, Walter. The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press, 2017</bibl>
          <bibl n="200480">Van der Woude, Ad, and Anton Schuurman, ed. Probate inventories. A new source for the historical study of wealth, material culture and agricultural development. Papers Presented at the Leeuwenborch Conference (Wageningen, 5-7 May 1980) (A.A.G. Bijdragen, 23). Wageningen: H&amp;amp;S, 1980</bibl>
          <bibl n="200930">Viciano, Pau. Els peus que calciguen la terra. Els llauradors del Pa&amp;#237;s Valenci&amp;#224; a la fi de l’edat mitjana. Val&amp;#232;ncia: Publicacions de la Universitat de Val&amp;#232;ncia, 2012</bibl>
          <bibl n="200395">Viciano, Pau. “Treballar per a altri. Els jornalers agr&amp;#237;coles al Pa&amp;#237;s Valenci&amp;#224; a la fi de l’Edat Mitjana.” En El Pa&amp;#237;s Valenciano en la Baja Edad Media. Estudios dedicados al Profesor Paulino Iradiel, ed. por David Igual Luis, y Germ&amp;#225;n Navarro Espinach, 341-66. Val&amp;#232;ncia: Publicacions de la Universitat de Val&amp;#232;ncia, 2018</bibl>
        </listBibl>
      </div>
    </body>
  </text>
</TEI>