Basque ethnography at a glance

Transportation of milk churns by cart. Neighbourhood of Ambasaguas in Carranza (Bizkaia), 1958. Courtesy of Miguel Sabino Díaz.

The economy of our society of generations past was very nearly self-sufficient, with hardly any money involved. Payments in kind and bartering among neighbours were common practice. Only a handful of items were purchased: salt, sugar, oil and tobacco. And depending on locations and circumstances not even those, as in the following instances. In surroundings close to salt mines across the territory locals were well supplied for salt. Some keen smokers cultivated tobacco; others contented themselves with the leaves of native plant species. Once dried and cut, the vegetable remains were rolled in the lighter inner husks of maize. Olives were grown in the south of the country, so cooking oil was readily available. Animal fats, namely tallow and lard, were often used instead of oil in areas not suited to olive growing. Little sugar was consumed, honey being its natural alternative. In time of shortage the traditional farmstead was virtually a complete autarky from the point of view of food sovereignty.

The first signs of a market economy, other than livestock fairs, emerged in my grandparents’ time. Whatever little excess milk, local farmers carried it to the station in Carranza for the early morning train from Santander to Bilbao. For that they used a yoke of wood, which they balanced on their shoulder, with two small churns suspended from each end. When production increased, milk for sale started to be transported in panniers on the back of a donkey. If there was only one churn, it was placed in one of the two panniers and a stone in the other to balance the weight. On arrival at the train station the stone was hurled, a huge amount of them ending up piled high. More and more milk was produced as time went on, a farmer taking charge of collecting churns from fellow farmers at an agreed location and transporting them in a donkey-drawn cart. With the advent of mechanization donkey and cart were replaced by a tractor-trailer combination. Milk production continued to grow, bringing about the consolidation of artisan dairies with their own fleet of small trucks for transportation of churns with capacity for up to forty litres. Larger trucks were soon needed, and eventually tankers, to haul milk from farms to progressively larger dairies for processing. Modern tankers collect thousands of litres of milk from bulk-cooling tanks installed at now ‘exploitation’ as a consequence of an increased concentration of dairy production. Our traditional society became gradually submerged in the world of markets, leaving behind an overwhelming stream of farmers who missed the train of progress, were not given the chance to climb on board, or fell off whilst moving. And many of the few who remain active struggle to cope with uncertain futures.

Over a century or so we have transitioned from a farm-based and unmechanized production to industrial-scale diaries. Farmers today exploit rising numbers of cattle but are themselves at the mercy of major diary companies, which are in turn pretty much subject to the forces of supply and demand, not to mention the economic interests of agrifood multinationals. In a ‘market economy’ the farmer ultimately becomes a commercial ‘commodity’.

Luis Manuel Peña – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa