From commercial companies and scientific associations to agricultural unions. Associations in the Douro region between 1865 and 1926

Abstract

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the Douro Region was facing the consequences of vine plagues; the liberal legislation introduced in 1865, and changes in the markets, which would lead to an acute commercial crisis of overproduction and, soon, to a social problem and sectorial and inter-regional conflict.
The search for solutions to the crisis in which the Region was living would then occur. From an institutional point of view, an associative movement began to emerge, which included forming trading companies and creating agricultural trade unions.
In this article, we will analyze different forms of regional associative which developed between the mid-1860s and the beginning of the 1930s, trying to assess the degree of implementation, organization, and influence of the new associations in the destiny of the Region.