Latifundiary estates and Technical Progress: The Diffusion of Steam Threshing in Alentejo, 1860-1930

Abstract

One of the most salient traits of Portuguese latinfundiary agriculture has often been deemed to be its inefficient use of the factors of production. One of the most interesting aspects of this question in technical backwardness and in the present article this has been the approach used, the period covered being 1860-1930. The example chosen is steam threshing and in order to account for the slowness of its diffusion throughout the region two explanations were considered. Either, latifundiary entrepreneurs were being irrational in their resistance to technical change, or they were being economically rational and were seeking to maximize profits. It was found that during 1860-1900 the lack of interest of the large estates in steam threshing was justified by the fact that its unit costs were higher than those of the tradicional threshing methods. From 1900 to 1930, the rapid spread of steam threshers could be accounted for by the change in the structure of production costs largely brought on by a considerable expansion in grain output. In this changed situation, advanced technology proved to be cheaper than the archaic forms of threshing. Thus there seem to be grounds for supposing that among Alentejo farmers «technical backwardness» can be «rational» and may represent the best possible use of resources in the circumstances.