Spain’s 19th Century: Economic and Social Transformations
**Disentailment of Land in 19th Century Spain**
The disentailment of land was the first piece of land transferred in the 19th century. All disentailment laws have been described as a liberal agrarian reform. There were three main stages:
- Stage 1: Began with Godoy and affected the Church, with a positive result for real estate.
- Stage 2: Began with the laws of the Minister of Disentailment.
- Stage 3: Affected the property of the municipality and the community Church.
The consequences were an increase in the number of large landowners. The buyers were wealthy, and there was cultivation of abandoned land. The losers were farmers and the local Church. Production grew modestly until the last quarter of the century. Political protectionism sought to slow the agricultural crisis of the century, but it hid the low Spanish agricultural productivity, which in the 19th century was a key sector but not dynamic. We can conclude that agricultural stagnation was a basic cause of the delay in the Spanish economy.
**Textile Industry**
The textile industry was the home of the road to industrialization, especially cotton. Catalonia was the very heart of this activity and was based on the introduction of machines driven by water wheels or steam. There was an increase in demand from the colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Independence was devastating for the industry. Wool, although focused on workshops in Castile and Leon, had dispersed. Silk was prominent in Valencia, Murcia, and Granada. Flax was important in Galicia.
**Mining and Metallurgy**
Spain always had great mineral wealth, and despite stagnation, it always favored the mining boom. However, due to the basic law on mines, this expansion was driven by foreign investment and the confiscation of the subsoil. Steel production was concentrated in Bilbao, in the Basque Country.
**Trade and Communications**
Domestic trade and prosecutors faced natural obstacles, a poor road network, and a rail breakthrough. There was an abolition of taxes and late notification by mail and telegraph. Foreign trade suffered wars in the first third of the century. It grew with ups and downs since 1840, and most wines were sold with minerals and textiles. Means of road transport improved with the restoration of roads, the sea, and the introduction of rail transport.
**Banking and Monetary System**
The first San Carlos bank led to the bankruptcy of San Fernando. The state had issued the currency and public debt. The Bank of Spain originated between 1844 and 1856. At first, it expanded from the banking crisis of 1866. From 1874, there was an expansion of banks with a single broadcast bank and a predominance of public banks. Until 1830, there was an anarchy of coin weights and measures. In 1868, the peseta became the currency unit, but it was slow to generalize. There was an issuance of banknotes and current accounts, with a predominance of silver and gold in circulation. The bank balance was not used for productive investments.
**Role of the State and Business**
The tax system had up to 45 taxes and low efficiency. The tax reform simplified the tax system. The public debt problem remained unsolved. There was a sluggishness in business due to the absence of a capitalist mentality. The result was foreign dominance in banking, the mining industry, and agriculture. In conclusion, Spanish business was burdened by a conservative mentality of protectionism.
**Demographic Changes**
There was higher growth but lower than in Europe due to mortality caused by unsanitary conditions, food crises, high infant mortality, and epidemics. From 1869, there was freedom to emigrate. The main destination country was Latin America, especially Argentina. There were also political exiles and an intense rural exodus in the second half of the century.
**Origins of the Labor Movement**
There were two separate stages in the administration: the first with spontaneous actions and the second with the influence of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA) ideologies. The first stage saw protests against machines and the first strikes in Barcelona. The labor movement leaned toward Bakunin’s anarchism and the IWA. There was an internal division between Marxists and anarchists within the IWA, with anarchist hegemony having violent and reformist currents.