Agricultural machinery sales companies in the second and third wave of technological change in agriculture in Spain, 1850-2000

Abstract

This article analyses agricultural machinery sales companies in the second and third waves of technological change in Spanish agriculture, 1850-2000. We summarise the long-term relationship between companies and the main multinationals in the sector, institutional changes and demand. We consider both large agricultural machinery (portable engines, tractors and combine harvesters) and small mechanised and animal-drawn machinery (ploughs, sowers, cultivators, etc.) for both cereal and livestock farming, on large or small plots of land, and for family or wage labour. We have combined extensive bibliographical research with work in public and private archives, newspaper archives and fieldwork. We identify different long-term periods, but above all the way in which large multinationals at the international level and small distributors at the regional-local level manage to control the market and condition demand towards the end of the 20th century.