Work, rice and malaria in Valencia in the XVIIIth century.

This study, prepared with documentary sources from archives, focuses on one of the most serious health problems in Spain in the age of Enlightenment; that is, the pernicious endemics of malaria in the humid Mediterranean zones. Based on material from the General Archives of Simancas, the author studies the health polemic between the partisans and detractors of rice cultivation in the swampy bogs of the Turia and Júcar river areas. To these considerations on Valencia's agricultural expansion in the 18th century is added a documented study on malaria in the ancient kingdom of Valencia, a theme which underlies this historiographic contribution.