596 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
times had been given over to the shepherds, are reconquered by the 
cultivators. But the regions which had been attacked by malaria 
remain insalubrious and half deserted; they constitute large domains 
upon which, as in times of the Cesars, the pastoral industry is still 
practiced. 
Among the numerous factors causing the decadence of Spain, one 
of the most important was its depopulation by emigration and its 
low birth rate. One can imagine what must have been the allure- 
ment of the New World for the men of the sixteenth century—forests 
of precious woods, diamond mines, rivers with rolling gold sand! 
Thus the young people embarked in crowds, and most of them never 
returned. 
In Europe itself the possessions of Spain extended from Sicily to 
the Baltic. To hold peoples so different from herself under her 
domination she needed men, and Spain then sent forth the most 
vigorous of her children as soldiers. Of those who remained in the 
country a large number entered the various religious orders. Those 
who married, and upon whom fell all the burdens of home affairs, 
restricted their offspring, so that the voids could not be filled out. 
Even the cities became depopulated, notwithstanding the influx of 
more than half a million strangers. In the seventeenth century the 
decadence was complete. The ruin of the land made it definitive. 
As in Greece, as in Italy, so in Spain the depopulation of the coun- 
trysides favored pastoral pursuits. The great landowners, the mas- 
ters of Castilla, drew large revenues from the rearing of the merino 
sheep, whose wool yielded an annual return of 10 francs per head. 
Their powerful corporation, the ‘“ Mesta,’”’ obtained exorbitant privi- 
leges from the Government; the flocks, which herded in summer on 
the plateaus, in winter on the lower levels, everywhere had the right 
of way and of watering; fences were forbidden, and the flocks de- 
voured the crops, vines, olive trees, and other verdure. Castilla be- 
came deforested, then denuded, and the rivers were turned into tor- 
rents. There was total ruin, and famine permanently reigned. 
“The lark had to import its grain” when passing through this land 
of hunger and thirst. Andalusia and Aragon, countries of large prop- 
erties, suffered from the same evils. On the other hand, the north- 
ern Provinces, subject to the régime of small properties, preserved 
some prosperity, thus establishing a striking counterproof.! 
In Spain, as in Greece and Italy, the development of the heights 
resulted in deforestation and ruined the soil, but in Castilla, which 
is a high plateau whose climate is unfavorable to the reproduction of 
the Anophele mosquito, malaria could not settle; it raged only in 
certain low and humid districts of Andalusia. 
1 This theory was presented by me, with numerous historical details, in Les Documents du Progrés, 
Oct., 1910, p. 298. Dr. W. Koeppen, in another article, ‘Les Causes de la Décadence de l’ Espagne et de 
certains autres pays” (in the Review, June, 1912, p. 387), brought new facts to the support of my thesis. 
