Key Historical and Economic Terms
Productivity
The relationship between the value of output and the resources used to produce it in a given period. A reflection of agricultural productivity considers the value of crops while maintaining or decreasing expenses.
Lease Agreement
An agreement between a landowner and a worker where the worker pays a fixed amount over an agreed period instead of working the land. Longer payment deadlines benefit the worker.
Emphyteusis
An agreement between two people where the owner assigns a piece of land in perpetuity in exchange for a fixed payment. The emphyteuta can bequeath the land or sell improvements.
Rabassa Morta
A type of perpetual contract where the rabassaires were exploited. This system ensured that the rabassaires remained tied to the land, as it consisted of cultivating old vine roots to establish new strains.
Third International
An international association of workers, founded in Moscow in 1919 following the Soviet Revolution. Its goal was to organize communist parties to carry out revolutions in each country. It dissolved in 1943.
Strike
Worker rebellions.
Lockout
Management’s right to temporarily close a company as a pressure tactic to meet worker demands. Wages are not paid during a lockout.
FAI (Federación Anarquista Ibérica)
A Spanish anarchist organization created clandestinely in Valencia in 1927. Its aim was to promote anarchism within the CNT, maintain the union’s apolitical stance, and avoid alliances with republican parties. Its propaganda organ was “Land and Freedom.”
Dictatorship
A form of government where power is concentrated in a single individual (the dictator), characterized by a lack of separation of powers, arbitrary command, and suppression of opposition.
Pact of San Sebastián
An agreement between monarchists and other groups. Dynastic parties lacked popular support, while intellectuals and the middle class leaned towards Republicanism. In 1930, republican, socialist, and nationalist parties met in San Sebastián to establish an anti-monarchist policy and a Revolutionary Committee. Catalan representatives were promised autonomy subject to a referendum and the creation of a new Spanish constitution.
Migratory Balance
The difference between the number of people immigrating to and emigrating from a country. It is positive if immigration exceeds emigration and negative if emigration exceeds immigration.
Usufruct
The right to enjoy the fruits of something owned by another person. Landless workers could retain usufruct rights even if the land ownership changed.
Casas Viejas Incident
A peasant uprising in Casas Viejas (Cádiz) in 1933. Rebels attacked the Civil Guard barracks. Reinforcements repelled the farmers, but a group barricaded themselves in a hut. The guards burned the hut, killing all inside. Fourteen detainees were executed. The government’s defense of the Guard’s actions and denial of atrocities led to calls for resignation.
JONS
A political group founded in 1931 by Ramiro Ledesma and Onésimo Redondo. It represented the first attempt at organized Spanish fascism and merged with the Falange in 1934.
Falange
A political organization founded in 1933 by José Antonio Primo de Rivera, advocating a totalitarian and centralized state. It merged with JONS and supported the military uprising of July 18, 1936.
Contracts Act for Crops
Approved in 1934 to prevent the expulsion of rabassaires from cultivated land and to enable them to eventually purchase the land.
Straperlo
A term combining the surnames Strauss and Perl, inventors of a roulette wheel that caused a political scandal during the Republic. Strauss attempted to legalize the roulette wheel in 1934. After its introduction in San Sebastián and subsequent ban by police, Strauss demanded compensation from politicians. The ensuing scandal discredited the Radical Party and forced Lerroux to resign. During the war, “straperlo” became synonymous with black market smuggling.
Generalitat
Following the municipal elections of April 12, 1931, Francesc Macià, leader of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, declared the Catalan Republic. On April 17, an agreement was reached with the Spanish provisional government, renaming the Catalan Republic as the Generalitat of Catalonia, reviving the medieval name for the General Council.