Unemployment and poverty in agriculture in Lower Andalusia eighteenth century

Abstract

The agricultural worker is subjected to a strong lack of job security arising from the compelling agricultural cycle, from the will of the employers and from the impacts of the meteorological phenomena. Therefore the wage employment in the rural areas is a non continous activity, with periods of employement and others of unemployment, the latter were sometimes long periods of time. As in the Modern Age did not exist any regulated extended benefits, that would allow the economic survival of the agricultural worker during the periods of unemployment, the worker turned into a pauper that earns one´s living by begging and, at times, by illegal activities. The study raises the research into the transformation process of the agricultural worker into a beggar and intends to analyze the social, economic and moral implications, as well as the impacts on the public policy that this process gives rise to. In a like manner it will be assessed the policy and action developed as a response to the mentioned problems.