Commercial Agriculture and Industrial Revolution in 19th-Century Spain
Advances in Commercial Agriculture
From the second half of the nineteenth century, agriculture oriented toward marketing was gradually imposed on the Mediterranean coast, driven by the export market. The cultivation of vines, citrus fruit, rice, and sugar cane was widespread during this period, alongside other products with less widespread cultivation, such as fruits, olives, and esparto. The vineyard, a traditional crop, experienced significant growth from the late nineteenth century. Between 1850 and 1875, Spain tripled the volume of wine exports to Europe. This expansion was largely due to the appearance of the devastating phylloxera plague in Europe around 1863, which ruined French vineyards. Spain became the world’s leading wine producer between 1870 and 1880. However, traditional cereal cultivation remained dominant, and exports were not strong. The dream of Spain becoming Europe’s breadbasket was frustrated as conflicts like the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) ended, and the price of Spanish grain could not compete with that of French, German, and British grain.
Industrial Change
In Spain, the Industrial Revolution was in full effect in Catalonia and the Basque Country, and to a lesser extent in some regions of Andalusia, Valencia, and other parts of Spain.
The Backwardness of Spanish Industry
When some European countries began the second phase of the Industrial Revolution in the last third of the nineteenth century, Spain remained a country primarily based on agriculture, except for the Catalan textile and Basque steel industries. Explanations for this delay often focus on two factors. The delay was attributed to poor industrial demand for manufactured products and the poverty of the majority peasant population, resulting in low purchasing power. Excessive protectionism is also often cited as a reason for this delay. Catalonia produced goods that were quite a bit more expensive than foreign products since they lacked coal, iron, and good coastal ports for efficient loading and unloading. Additionally, there was a lack of investment, poor land communications, and a lack of commercial networks to reach potential consumers. Thus, while Spain produced wheat, Valencia imported it from abroad. Asturian mines could not find buyers for their coal, while Bilbao bought coal from Britain, and most Castilian homes burned wood and straw. Some of these problems were solved over the century, leading to some expansion of the industrial sector, but at a much slower pace than most Western European countries.
The Catalan Case: The Textile Industry
In addition to capital, labor, and technological innovation, two other basic conditions are necessary for the textile industry to flourish: the existence of raw materials or cheap and abundant energy sources, and a good demand for textiles. Neither of these conditions existed in Catalonia: cotton and coal were imported, and the Spanish market had little purchasing power. Initially, it was important to create a textile industry, especially cotton, thanks to the advance of the Catalan economy over the rest of Spain. Catalonia had gained the liberty to trade with the American colonies. Exports of textiles and apparel generated significant profits, leading to the establishment of factories.