FUNCTIONS

FARM WORK

Imaxe do carro pertencente ao Arquivo do Reino de Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia Historical Archives

Carts were mainly used for farming: to prepare the lands, to carry the materials needed for repairs, and to transport the crops to the barn or raised granary. Carts used to carry the gorse cut to make beds for the animals, carts loaded with manure came out of the stables to fertilize the lands where potatoes, corn, grapes for the wine harvest, cabbages and other vegetables for the family's self-consume were later sown. In the local contracts, the owners clearly specified the tasks that the tenants had to carry out in the rented vineyards and the amount of manure with which they had to be fertilized for higher productivity: "primeramente que lle roçasen enderedor o silveiro e mato.. que a ontre chantasen e que a estes chantamentos o encasamentos que lle deytasen tres carros desterco e pro cuanto non fora arrendada a cavasen toda en este mes de junio primeiro que ven sendo primeiramente rota de todo"1

A proper farmhouse was supposed to have at least one cart drawn by oxen or cows. However, not every farm owned a cart or a plough to make the family's work easier. All kinds of hand tools (hoes, adzes, sickles...) were mentioned in post-mortem inventories, but ploughs and, above all, carts were not so common. Owning a cart didn't avoid the hard human work necessary to push carts up the hills or to carry all kinds of products on one's shoulders to places that were inaccessible to carts. Using carts and sowing bread were tasks that corresponded exclusively to the master of the house : "Nada había máis grave e solemne que un petrucio percorrendo, airoso e gallardo, dunha estrema a outra da leira, e repartindo a voleo os puñados de gra"2

 

A Galicia dos anos 20 por Ruth Anderson

Ruth Anderson, M.  Galicia in the 1920s
Archivo de la Hispanic  Society

 

A MEANS OF TRANSPORT

 

In a subsistence economy like the one in which Galician farmers lived, carts were an indispensable instrument for carrying out non-agricultural work for which the help and collaboration of neighbours were also required. Carrying stones from a quarry to build a stable, a barn, a raised granary or the family house was not easy. Transporting the largest and heaviest stones, such as a lintel for a barn or raised granary, from the quarry was especially difficult. For this reason, it was necessary to use the best yokes or to link two yokes together by means of a tamoucela. The same happened with the logs that, once they had been sawn in the oak groves, were used to to prepare the beams that bore the weight of attics and roofs in rural buildings. On the coast, carts made it possible to move shallow-water fishing boats, nets and other fishing tools to be repaired at home.

 

A UNIT OF MEASUREMENT


 

The uniformity of the structure of carts made it possible to use them as a reference for measures in the transport of firewood, to quantify the agricultural produce, its value and the manure needed for a farm. In the land registry of the Marquis of Ensenada, a survey promoted by the Crown of Castile around the middle of the 18th century, the estimates of an area's firewood or grass production were made by carts.
Nas respostas xerais á pregunta 12ª sobre a "cantidade de froitos de cada xénero que produce, cunha ordinaria cultura, unha medida de terra" contestan os veciños da Xurisdición de Montederramo que "se dita medida é de devesa de carballos en todas as poboación que as conteñen sendo de primeira calidade producen unha corta de catro carros de leña de quince en quince anos, se é de segunda unha tercia parte menos, e de terceira a metade." O valor monetario tamén se lle estipula a cada carrada dependendo do produto que carrexa: "á decimo cuarta dixeron que o valor que teñen ordinariamente un ano con outro os froitos que poden producir as terras do termo de ditas freguesías [Xurisdición de Caldelas] é na forma seguinte: a tega de liña, oito reais, a de centeo catro un carro de herba vintedous, un carro de leña oito, unha galiña dous, (…)"
Roof tiles and bricks made by the cabaqueiros from O Rosal and A Guarda (Pontevedra) used to be sold right in the brick factories that buyers visited. As a unit of measurement, they used the modio, which was the amount necessary to fill a cart drawn by a yoke of oxen.
Recollendo redes en Vigo en 1927
Gathering fishing nets in Vigo, 1927
https://picasaweb.google.com/blodopaco

 

TAXES

The nobility, who needed workers and means to build their medieval fortresses, did not hesitate to demand tributes and labour, which were not so common on other occasions.

The Count and Countess of Lemos "started to demand, under the excuse of the work they were having carried out in their castle, taxes and labour until then unknown: obligatory loans, temporary confiscation of carts, oxen, and tools for the construction work (...)"from the inhabitants of the land of Caldelas.3. The tenants had to take the agreed rents to their masters on the same carts they used to prepare the lands. The Cabildo -local authority- of Tui forced its farmers to transport their rent: “despois de partido ho leve no seu carro e con seus boys a villa.4.

 

ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONS

Apart from its utilization for farming and transport, the cart kept in the farmer's barn was often used for the pig slaughter. Following the slaughterman's instructions, men used to lift the pig up onto the chedeiro, the part of the cart that meets the cabezalla, which was previously raised by placing a wedge under one of the wheels so that the pig would bleed to death more easily. On the same cart, the pig skin, previously burnt with a tuft of straw, was washed and scrubbed. On the day of the slaughter, carts were also used as a shelf, and pork hams, shoulders, backbone, and lard were laid on the cart before they were taken to the larder.

A desfeita do porco por riba do chedeiro do carro
Pig slaughter on the chedeiro of the cart
Vidalén (Montederramo-Ourense)

 

1 CARRERA SÁNCHEZ, M. DEL CARMEN. El Bajo Miño en el siglo XV. El espacio y los hombres. Barrié de la Maza. A Coruña, 1997. Páx. 83
2 SAAVEDRA, P. A vida cotiá en Galicia de 1550-1580. Biblioteca de Divulgación. Santiago de Compostela, 1992. Páx 96
3 SOTELO BLANCO, OLEGARIO. Castro Caldelas y su comarca. Ed Sotelo Blanco, 1981. Páx. 50
4 CARRERA SÁNCHEZ, M. DEL CARMEN. El Bajo Miño en el siglo XV. El espacio y los hombres. Barrié de la Maza. A Coruña, 1997. Páx .87

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