El forment a la Barcelona baixmedieval: preus, mesures i fiscalitat (1283-1345)

Abstract

Through the analysis of two quite different series of account books from Barcelona, those coming from the management of royal mills and those redacted by an ecclesiastical institution, the Pia Almoina, we started studying the wheat market in Barcelona during the Middle Ages. We have previously analyzed the value of the measures in Barcelona and, to be able to rate the real price of bread, we have also studied the different industrial processes to make bread out of wheat. Afterwards, we have analyzed the group of taxes that burdened the commercialisation of cereals. Through the study of the evolution of the prices, we have tried to make a first approach of the first stage of the low medieval crisis, more precisely between 1283 and 1345, taking into account the contrasts with the works already done on the base of sources where the notion of quantity was not considered. Finally, we have compared our results with some studies referring to the crown of Aragon and the mediterranean world, in order to get a more precise idea of the chronology of the subsistence crises.