Active population and population in religious life in Trás-os-Montes at the end of the XVIIIth century

Abstract

Taking for its starting-point a report, dated from 1796, by Columbano Ribeiro de Castro, the present article offers a study on the composition of active population in the Portuguese province of Trás-os-Montes at the end of the XVIII^th century. The report taken for its source has a great value, as one does not know any other source, comparable for its richness of information, of data about Trás-os-Montes or even about other Portuguese province in the same time. After analysing the composition of population by professions, three main categories are distinguished: 1) without occupation; 2) population in religious life; 3) active population. And one evaluates the importance of each category as to the total. Then active population is studied, according to its distribution by sectors of activity, one makes a comparison with Galicia at the same epoch and one tries to extablish the general lines of the evolution achieved from 1792 till 1960. The final part of this article contains a short study about the population in religious life, which is grounded not only in the data of Columbano Ribeiro de Castro, but also in a comparison with the province of Minho and, once more, with Galicia.