ABSTRACT
After livestock rearing, agriculture was the basic economic activity in the Calatravan estates of the Castilian southern tableland. However, it was clearly dependent upon the practice of livestock rearing, which was essential to the feudal economy of the Order of Calatrava, except in very localized areas where it concentrated on more specialized crop production. To analyse the level of importance attained by agriculture in the economic structure of the Calatravan domains, it is necessary first to ascertain the types of crop which existed, then the techniques used to harvest them, and finally to study the organization of the agricultural landscape and the forms of ownership and land exploitation.
