El retroceso del olivar en las Baleares: un itinerario a contracorriente de la evolución española:(1800-1960)

Abstract

[eng] The expansion of olive groves in most of mainland Spain from the mid-nineteenth century coincided with the decline of the tree in the Balearics. In the late eighteenth Mallorca was the main oil exporting region of Spain, but little more than a century later it was necessary to import oil to supply the needs of the Island. In this paper the main factors relating to the decline in oil production was analyzed: the causes of the landowners lack of interest in improving production levels or product quality, the replacement of olive trees by other more profitable trees, the fact that they were increasingly confined their progressive confinement to those areas of the island unsuitable for other crops and finally their eminently industrial export-oriented use as raw material for Marseilles soap.