The Kingdom of Valencia in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources James Casey explores two major themes in Spanish historiography - the consequences of the expulsion of the Moriscos (heavily concentrated in Valencia in the early seventeenth century), and the way in which the Habsburg Monarchy kept or lost control over its peripheral provinces. The study ranges widely over questions of population (including a pioneering attempt for early modern Spain at family reconstitution), landholding and agriculture, exploring the links between depopulation and economic decline - twin phenomena which characterized the peninsula in the age of Spain's decline. Dr Casey has drawn on a variety of previously neglected sources - parish registers, tithe records, cadastral surveys - in order to quantify these developments as far as possible. The result is a reassessment of the chronology and extent of economic recession in one of Spain's most fertile provinces, and a revision of some ideas about the importance of the expulsion of the Moriscos.