1979
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Michel Zylberberg, « François Cabarrús, agriculteur éclairé, ou un banquier aux champs », Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, ID : 10.3406/casa.1979.2305
During the second half of the XVIII century, an attempt to modernize agriculture took place in Spain. Within this context, stood out the one carried by F. Cabarrús in Castilla la Nueva since 1796. The former Director of the San Carlos Bank wanted to spur the Spanish farm workers to obtain water from an irrigation system of which he was the owner. To fulfil this, he decided to create an agricultural enterprise which was a model on its kind. To carry out his plan, he purchased hundreds of hectares in the plain of Uceda. He also brought in colonists and agricultural experts with the aim of systematicaly developing irrigation farming together with the plantation of fruit trees. In spite of the large amount of the capital that he invested, F. Cabarrús failed. The reasons for the failure were in the first place the inability to recruit suitable colonists and, above all, the rejection by the workers of their working conditions, which were those characteristic of any big agricultural faim, namely, the extension of the working day on the one hand, and increased productivity on the other.