Rural police and agricultural labour markets in the Spanish Second Republic: the case of Santa Marta (Badajoz), 1931-1936 Articles uri icon

authors

  • RIESCO ROCHE, SERGIO
  • RODRIGUEZ JIMENEZ, FRANCISCO J.

publication date

  • December 2016

start page

  • 101

end page

  • 130

issue

  • 70

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1139-1472

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 2340-3659

abstract

  • Instrumental in supporting the agricultural reforms enacted during the Second Republic, the regulations on compulsory cultivation and the Rural Police Commission exhibited both positives and negatives. This article reveals details of events related to this Commission in the town of Santa Marta, in the province of Badajoz. The full minutes of the executive meetings of this organisation have been preserved in the Municipal Archives, a rather exceptional circumstance as in most cases they have entirely disappeared. Up until now, historiography has been silent on many aspects of the Rural Police Commission, such as its constitution, its relationship with the political life of the period, the kind of agricultural plantations that its mandate covered, the effectiveness of its actions, the reactions and hopes it awakened among owners and workers, etc.

keywords

  • spanish second republic; institutions; political process; agrarian reform; social conflicts