Economic and Agricultural Terms: A Comprehensive Glossary
Trade and Economic Policies
Fee: A border tax or fee that is levied on imports. Along with quotas, it is one of the instruments typical of protectionist trade policies. In Spanish history, the famous Canovas tariff of 1892 oriented the Spanish economy towards protectionism. This protectionism continued until 1986 (the year of joining the EU) and hurt the competitiveness of the Spanish economy.
Balance of Payments: A document that collects all the economic transactions of a country with others, i.e., it records exports, imports, capital transfers, loans, investments, services, etc. Traditionally, Spain’s balance has been negative, but since the 1960 Stabilization Plan, foreign exchange from tourism, remittances from emigrants, etc., have helped. A surplus was achieved until the energy crisis of 1973-74.
Trade Balance: An accounting document that records exports and imports. In Spain, this balance has traditionally been in deficit, compensated by services and capital investment. This became especially evident in the 1960s, where the acquisition of imports for development was funded by the currencies of migrants, tourism, and foreign investments. Along with the balance of services, capital, and insurance, it makes up the balance of payments.
Public Deficit: Occurs when the state spends more than it earns. With the so-called “welfare state,” there has been a considerable increase in public deficits, which in some cases can lead to chronic indebtedness. However, with the new theories of neoliberalism, the target set is “zero deficit” through a gradual privatization of companies and reduced public spending.
Agriculture and Aquaculture
Aquaculture: As its etymology indicates, this is the activity dedicated to the cultivation of aquatic organisms in farms or facilities in the sea. Given the problems with traditional fishing, it is an activity with great future potential.
Market Agriculture: Crops dedicated primarily to sales for marketing. Example: Horticulture.
Traditional or Subsistence Agriculture: Crops that the farmer and his family consume as the basic articles of their diet.
Partnership: A form of indirect use of a parcel, where the land is transferred by the owner to another person who delivers an annual return for a percentage of the crop.
Lease: A form of indirect use of a parcel, where the owner of the land enjoys the benefits obtained from it by paying rent to the owner, regardless of the benefits of exploitation.
Fishing Banks or Fisheries: Groups of fish important enough to be profitable fisheries. They are located in the grounds or areas where fishermen get their catch. In Spanish fishing, national fishing grounds are on the decline, and therefore fishing boats have to make long trips, sometimes long-term.
Fallow: A traditional cultivation system consisting of resting the field for one season (half fallow), a year (once fallow year), or a longer time period (biennial, triennial), with the aim of achieving soil reconstruction.
Land Consolidation: The merging of different plots into one, making a redistribution of rural property to streamline farming. It is a land policy practice that uses bartering and other practices to unite scattered plots to make them more profitable and competitive. Land consolidation is one of the typical practices of land reform.
Agricultural Cooperatives: Voluntary or mandatory farmers’ associations concerned with the acquisition and distribution of seeds, feed, fertilizer, and the marketing, processing, and sale of agricultural production. They enable bulk purchases and mass marketing.
Crops Under Plastic (Greenhouse Crops): Cultivation for production outside the appropriate season, set up so that one can voluntarily act on the various factors affecting plant development (water, humidity, temperature).
Sand Mulching: A method of cropping to prevent soil moisture loss, where cultivated lands are covered with sand, thereby increasing productivity.
Forcing: A method of growing that somehow forces the land to increase productivity more than usual. It is accomplished by using various cultivation techniques (crops under plastic, sand mulching, hydroponics).
Intensive/Extensive:
- Intensive: Cultivation and agricultural or livestock production that takes place on a limited area and requires a significant investment of funds by supplying fertilizers, employing workers, and using a cultivation system to produce high yields.
- Extensive: Cultivation and agricultural or livestock production that dedicate small amounts of labor and capital per unit area and, consequently, obtain low productivity.
Expertise (Agricultural, Industrial): The act of specializing in a particular activity, i.e., exclusively devoting oneself to that activity and competition.
Livestock: An agricultural activity involving the breeding of domestic animals to obtain meat, milk, dairy products, wool, or fur.
Rural Housing: A form of human settlement characterized by activities mainly related to the primary sector.
Industrialization and Energy
Industrial Center: The core of a specific place where related economic activities are carried out within an industrial sector. The location of industrial zones has changed over history due to many factors. With the First Industrial Revolution, industrial centers developed in the urban environment, promoting the growth of cities. In the case of heavy industries, they were located near raw materials or energy sources.
Retail/Wholesale:
- Wholesale: This type of trade concentrates production and distributes it to retailers. Its main novelty is the creation of self-service wholesale, especially in the food sector. It looks for central locations in relation to production and consumption. The regions best equipped for this type of service in Spain are the most populous: Catalonia, Madrid, and the Valencian Community.
- Retail: Selling directly to consumers. There are significant contrasts between traditional and modern trade. Traditional trade is in crisis; about 90% of this trade is in small establishments and is usually personal with immediate accessibility.
Industries of Goods: Manufacture of products that will be used by other industries.
Industries of Use and Consumption: Manufacture of products aimed directly at the consumer.
Alternative Energy: The name given to energy production technologies raised as an alternative to traditional ones (hydro, nuclear, combustion). Their common characteristics are the use of, in principle, unlimited sources and generating little or no waste. Thus, solar power uses solar radiation, wind energy transforms the movement of a blade into electrical energy, geothermal heat is extracted from geysers and hot springs, tidal power is a source of hydropower that exploits the periodic movement of tidal water to turn turbines, and energy is extracted by exploiting the temperature difference between surface and deep layers of the ocean. In most cases, the energy yields obtained are low.
Renewable Energy: Also called alternative energy or soft energy, this term encompasses a range of energy sources that, in theory, are not depleted over time. These sources would be an alternative to other traditional ones and produce minimal environmental impact, but some are not strictly renewable, such as geothermal power, or are used in a limited way.
Energy Sources: All the elements that have the capacity to act or produce an effect. In this case, it refers to the physical and chemical elements capable of producing thermal, mechanical, or electrical energy. For example, before the Industrial Revolution, wood was used, then coal, and then oil, hydro, etc.
Livestock Management
Stabling: A fixed place of residence and maintenance of animals in a stable, temporarily or permanently. Example: Cattle for fattening.
Fixed Stabling: Animals occupy a permanent and fixed position.
Free Stabling: Animals are not fixed and can move through the stable.
European Union Funds
Structural Funds: After bitter disputes, an agreement was reached on the distribution of the main components of these funds: the Structural Funds (including the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF), and the Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance (FIFG)) and the Cohesion Fund.
Science and Research
Scientific Research: A set of activities aimed at discovering new knowledge in the field of science. Since World War II, in developed countries, it has become an economic concern of big business and states, which spend part of their profits on this need for economic development.