[xi] Because of my background I have always had a special interest in agricultural history. I grew up on a farm, and at one point in my checkered career I dropped out of school to work for five years as a self-employed farmer before returning to the university to complete my doctoral studies in history. In school, my first-hand acquaintance with rural life caused me to ask many questions about the agricultural history of the lands I studied. It troubled me when I could not find answers to certain questions that I thought basic to understanding the agrarian economy. It often seemed to me that the scholars who wrote about agriculture and stockraising did not really understand the problems of the rural world.

I did my first serious reading on the history of Golden Age Spain in the summer of 1967, and I was shocked at the paucity of scholarly studies about the rural history of early modern Castile. Today, some fifteen years later, I would no longer be shocked, for a number of fine studies have been published in the interim. But there remain many questions to be answered. In this book I have tried to address some of the questions that have troubled me. Many other questions will have to be answered in subsequent studies. I hope that I can continue to work in the field for a long time to come, because I find it congenial, and, as the saying goes, the harvest is bounteous, but the laborers are few.

I am grateful for the financial support provided by Pan American University, by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by the Comité Conjunto Hispano-Norteamericano para Asuntos Educativos y Culturales. I would also like to thank the many archivists and librarians who facilitated my research, both in Spain and in the US. And finally, I want to express my gratitude for the unfailing support of my family. My two young sons were thrust several times into Spanish primary schools for months at a time, [xii] while their father read documents in Spanish archives. It was not always easy for them, but they accepted the challenge with good grace. And my wife Liliane not only encouraged me with my work, she actually sat by my side as a co-researcher in Madrid, Granada, and Valladolid, thus greatly increasing my productivity, and making the long hours easier to bear. Some of the most pleasant memories of our marriage are related to our joint research activities. It is to Liliane that I dedicate this book.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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