Propiedad expropiable en un partido “no latifundista” durante la Segunda República: el caso de Illescas (Toledo) = Seizable Property in a «Non-Latifundia» district during the Spanish Second Republic: The Case of Illescas (Toledo)

Abstract

This article intends to interpret the meaning and the significance of the so-called 5th Basis, one of the most controversial bases of the Second Spanish Republic’s agrarian reform in the judicial district of Illescas, in Central Spain. The study analyses the distribution and structure of the property contained in the Inventory of Seizable Farms, prepared in 1933 by the Institute of Agrarian Reform (I.R.A.). In Illescas, large states did not prevail and farmlands were, in general, fairly parcelled and well cultivated. The countryside was not depopulated and the soil exploitation was not deficient. Wages neither seemed to be near poverty nor rural unemployment was high. The implementation of the Agrarian Reform in Illescas would have made little sense, as if it had been applied in some other Castilian areas that were not expropriated.