The Golden Age of Spain, 1474–1598 - 3 The price revolution and its…

The idea

Population growth in Castilian towns and countryside raised demand for food, fuel and cloth while supply lagged, so prices climbed steadily from about 1500 to the 1560s. Urban growth around Seville, Toledo and Valladolid pulled in rural migrants, and rising rural numbers pressed on land, pushing up rents and grain prices. The result is the price revolution: a sustained, general rise in prices, not a single spike. Winners included landowners who raised rents, tax farmers, merchants and grain dealers; losers included wage earners, the landless poor and those on fixed incomes, whose money bought less. Social values shifted too: noble status and pureza de sangre mattered more, charity hardened towards the undeserving poor, and wealth from trade and office challenged older ideals of honour.

What earns the marks

• Explains that population growth in towns and countryside increased demand for food and basic goods faster than supply could respond, producing sustained price rises.
• Distinguishes the price revolution as a general, long-run rise in prices across the period c1500–c1570 rather than a short-term fluctuation.
• Identifies winners such as landowners able to raise rents, merchants, tax farmers and grain dealers who profited from higher prices.
• Identifies losers such as wage labourers, the landless poor and recipients of fixed incomes whose purchasing power fell.
• Explains changing social values, including sharper attitudes to poverty, the prestige of noble status and the growing acceptability of profit from trade and office.
• Links urban and rural population pressure to specific consequences such as higher rents, dearer grain and migration into towns.

Common mistakes and how to put them right

• Treating the price revolution as a single sudden event.

  Put it right by presenting it as cumulative inflation over decades driven by population pressure.

• Assuming all landowners gained equally.

  Put it right by distinguishing those who could raise rents or farm taxes from those on fixed customary dues.

• Describing social change only as economic.

  Put it right by explaining shifts in values, such as attitudes to poverty, honour and noble status.

Exam tips

• Anchor answers in the stated period c1500–c1570 and refer explicitly to both towns and countryside.
• Use the winners and losers framework to structure analysis, but support each group with a concrete example such as rising rents or falling real wages.
• When discussing social values, connect them to material change rather than listing attitudes in isolation.