droughts, crisis and bad harvest in southern valencian land during malda anomaly (1760-1800)

This article analyses the effects of droughts in agricultural production in Alicante, specifically in Medio Vinalopó, Bajo Vinalopó and Bajo Segura during one of the disturbances that occurred during Little Ice Age, known as Maldá Anomaly or Maldá Oscillation, which affected the Spanish Mediterranean front between 1760 and 1800. The key and higher scientific accuracy approximations to this topic in the Valencian territory have been developed by Armando Alberola Romá. Our objective is to enhance the contributions made by this author in order to obtain a larger sample for this period. For that reason, we have worked and contrasted information from different documentary sources that have been preserved from these decades. In the local archives from Novelda, Elche and Orihuela, the Actas Capitulares have been checked with the aim gaining an overview of this period; in the Archivo de Protocolos in Novelda, we have made a sample of census extension requests linked with the disastrous agricultural cycles in Novelda, Aspe and Monforte del Cid; whereas in the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Alicante, we have contrasted the list of villages in the area of study with those recorded in the Intendencia de Valencia, which in epochs of scarce agricultural production due to adverse climatic conditions was used to cancel fiscal obligations.