| Summary: | In the sixteenth century, the Rioja region was part of the North Atlantic trade routes. This encouraged an economy very diverse for the time. Using ecclesiastical accounting sources, this paper establishes the evolution of the regional agrarian product, the speed and the intensity with which the changes in the Rioja countryside came about and to what extent they were a result of the demand. The evolution of agricultural production in the Rioja region highlights two complimentary models of growth: in the western areas, demand in international and urban wine and wool markets was a determining factor, while in the east, population pressures played a greater role underlining the limits of traditional agriculture. Within the regional economy, the areas which were able to maintain a certain degree of diversification of production gained better results in the long term than those areas which remained faithful to a single crop. Agrarian Specialization, Regional Integration, Wine, Barley, Ancient Regime
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