Landlords and sharecroppers in wine producing regions: Beaujolais, Catalonia and Tuscany, 1800-1940

Abstract

The growing success of small family farms in Europe before 1930 was found alongside large estates. Tenanted estates enjoyed the advantages of the greater incentives of family farmers to maximize their production, and the economies of scale for marketing, credit or technical improvement of large exploitations. A particular case is the tenanted estates specialized in the production and marketing of wine and using sharecropping contracts. Technical changes, the increasing of scale economies in wine production, and the impact of Phylloxera after 1870 had an impact in the nature of the contract as landlords increasing the control on production. This paper compares the three specific cases of Beaujolais, Catalonia and Tuscany, where tenanted wine producing estates were common throughout this period, and the responses of owners and settlers to these changes in the long term.