Antes, bastante antes: la primera fase de la integración del mercado español de trigo, 1725-1808

Abstract

This paper analyses the degree of integration among wheat markets in eleven towns from different Spanish regions during the last three quarters of the XVIII century and the earliest XIX century. These towns' mercuriales have been the main data sources of this work. The mutual dependency between these markets was measured in two ways: by cross-correlating the time series of local prices and testing their cointegration in trend and cycle. We highlight the following main conclusions: 1) the national wheat market in Spain started before mid-17th century, not after 1825; and 2) in the last third of the seventeenth century the degree of regional market interdependence decreased, probably due to a higher participation of peripheral regions in the international commerce