Y el tren arrolló la Arcadia: Un análisis económico y literario de la influencia del ferrocarril en los núcleos rurales asturianos, 1879-1911

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse, based on the novel La Aldea Perdida by Palacio Valdés, the impact of railway construction on the population, number of farms and number of businesses at parish level in the mining councils of Laviana and Langreo. Using the difference–in–differences (DID) estimator, we quantified the effect of access to the railway on these parishes for the 1879–1911 period. The sources used were the Nomenclature of Population Entities and the Bailly–Bailliére Yearbook of Professions, Trades and Industries. The results confirmed that the railway had a positive and significant influence on population and number of businesses, while the number of farmsteads decreased. This highlights how industrialization was urbanizing the population, something Palacio Valdés opposed from the very first pages of his novel.