Usos y representaciones del agua en la España árida: el río Jabalón durante el siglo XVIII

During the Ancien Régime, water was not only a landscape element, but also an important source of wealth, that was monopolized by some sectors of rural society. This paper tries to remark its importance in the daily life of Campo de Montiel, one of the Castilian regions historically considered as a part of the arid Spain. By doing this, the author pays special attention to its use in agriculture and local industry. Rivers, dams, mills and springs drew by resident populations in sketches and cartographical representations have been analysed as well. In order to obtain all this information, the author has studied the Catastro de Ensenada documentation as well as the Descripciones that Toledan archbishop Cardinal Lorenzana, ordered to write at the end of the eighteenth century. Resumen: En el Antiguo Régimen, el agua no solo fue un elemento más del paisaje, sino también un recurso de primer orden, que generó riqueza, que fue aprovechado y, a veces monopolizado, por determinados sectores de población. El artículo que sigue pretende poner de relieve su importancia en la vida cotidiana del Campo de Montiel, una de las comarcas castellanas históricamente ligadas a la denominada España árida. En base a ello se presta atención a cuáles fueron los aprovechamientos que se le dieron en sectores clave de la economía rural como la agricultura y la manufactura. Junto a ello, también han sido objeto de especial atención las representaciones gráficas y descripciones que los vecinos de la comarca hicieron de ríos, presas, fuentes, molinos... Para ello el autor se ha servido de la documentación del Catastro de Ensenada, así como de las Descripciones que ordenó redactar el Cardenal Lorenzana, arzobispo de Toledo a finales del siglo XVIII.Abstract: During the Ancien Régime, water was not only a landscape element, but also an important source of wealth, that was monopolized by some sectors of rural society. This paper tries to remark its importance in the daily life of Campo de Montiel, one of the Castilian regions historically considered as a part of the arid Spain. By doing this, the author pays special attention to its use in agriculture and local industry. Rivers, dams, mills and springs drew by resident populations in sketches and cartographical representations have been analysed as well. In order to obtain all this information, the author has studied the Catastro de Ensenada documentation as well as the Descripciones that Toledan archbishop Cardinal Lorenzana, ordered to write at the end of the eighteenth century