Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal

Music

Home Parties and Popular Dances

Seguidillas and fandangos were iconic dances often held in private homes during informal parties called bailes de candil. These lively gatherings featured music from guitars, violins, and bandurrias, providing entertainment for neighborhoods.

Daily life

Cooking and food reliance in modest homes

Cooking in humble homes was typically performed in a multi-use kitchen area equipped with straw chairs, a wooden table, and basic cooking utensils. Bread and wine were the primary staples, and because many poor households lacked space or fuel, people often relied on buying prepared food from vendors, such as fried fish, fritters, or chickpeas.

What it cost

Worker wages in the late 1700s

A typical daily wage for a common laborer was around 3.5 reales, though specialized workers like carpenters could earn between 6 and 11 reales.

What people wore

The universal male cloak

Regardless of wealth, men almost universally wore a cloak as an essential outer layer, even over French-style clothing, and it was often used for multiple purposes including as a mattress or blanket.

Getting around

Road upgrades reduced travel time significantly

Road improvements around 1780, such as the new route between Madrid and Andalusia through the Despeñaperros pass, featured a ten-meter-wide paved road that reduced travel time by three days. Despite these advances, the heavy reliance on oxen for hauling cargo meant that long-distance freight travel remained slow, often limited by the animals' need to graze.

At the table

Diet of the Laboring Poor

Poor laborers often ate soup with oil or cornmeal porridge in the morning and legumes or salted sardines at midday. Wine was considered expensive, so these families typically drank it only on feast days, sometimes to excess.