Common goods as necessary elements for food security

A structural trait of the countryside southwest of Madrid was ownership by “propios” (administrators) and common ownership, which was a significant part of local agricultural economies. Common goods were fields and forests, and were managed by all the neighbours basically for grazing draught animals and sheep and goats. As for “propios” goods, these were different as they were administrated directly by a council and capital gains –if there were any- were used for the upkeep of the community. “Propios” goods were sometimes auctioned to help farmers who had no property or only small plots of land.

With time, the communal regime underwent profound changes due to the increasing financial needs of local councils, the intervention of local oligarchies and the need for greater acreage of big farming landowners. For example, Adriano Gómez’s investigations into Fuenlabrada reveal that the sale of communal property came about as a result of the destruction during the War of Succession (1713) or because the council had to cope with the constant fiscal charges of the 1970s; the same happened in Móstoles with the loss of common lands in la Magdalena and el Regordoño, which were dispossessed under the disentailment laws. This was a serious problem for farmers and neighbours with few resources.