RESUMEN: A lo largo del periodo comprendido entre la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII y todo el siglo XIX, las comunidades pasiegas se fueron adaptando a las diferentes demandas del mercado en lo que a producción láctea se refiere. Ello implicó una expansión de las superficies pratenses, privatizando amplias superficies comunales, en un proceso que se adelantó en varias décadas a lo que ocurriría posteriormente en otras comarcas de la cornisa cantábrica. Pero ello exigió más mano de obra y más intensidad de la misma. Los pasiegos, se evoca aquí el ejemplo de Vega de Pas, tuvieron que adaptar las estructuras y el tamaño de sus grupos domésticos a esas nuevas necesidades, superando la ?nuclearidad extrema? de las unidades familiares propia del siglo XVIII y de gran parte del XIX. Asimismo se realiza un somero análisis de sus procesos migratorios, tratando de complementar lo conocido hasta ahora.
ABSTRACT:
During the historical period beginning in the second half of the 18th century and continuing throughout the 19th century, the pasiego communities were gradually adapting to the varying demands of the economic market as far as
dairy farming and milk production were concerned. This meant a necessary expansion of grazing land and meadows and also the privatisation of large areas of public land in a process decades ahead of what would eventually occur in
other counties of the cantabrian seaboard. A consequence of this economic ad vance was the need for a greater workforce and for the work to become more intensive. An example of those imperative changes could be seen in the town of Vega de Pas, where, as a result, they had to adapt the structure and size of their domestic groups, exceeding the average number of members in a family unit typical of the 18th century and the most part of the 19th. Additionally a rough analysis of their migratory processes will be undertaken with the intention of supplementing the information gathered thus far.
