El abastecimiento de pescado en el Jaén del siglo XVII

Abstract

The provisioning of a city, especially with wheat, was one of the main concerns of the city councils in the Antiguo Regimen. During Lent it was necessary to supply the city with fish, especially cod, because of the obligatory religious fast. Moreover, fish and bread were the food staple of the poor. Thus there was great interest on the part of cities in obtaining a constant supply of fish.

In this article we analyze the various problems pertaining to this questions, beginning with the public sale of fish by the women in the two city fishmarkets. The capture and sale of freshwater fish was controlled by the city as well, and the greater part of the saltwater fish came from Málaga, Motril and El Puerto de Santa Maria, The contracts of the city councils with purveyors guaranteed this supply. However, in 1659 there was a riot protesting the scarcity of fish, which demonstrates the need for municipal control. The evolution of the price of fish shows a gradual rise until 1680. From 1680 on, fish prices decrease until in the last decade they are the same as they were at the beguining of the century. During Lent each city inhabitant consumed approximately 5.250 grams of fish per day.