History of the cotton industry in Catalonia
[1][2] The Catalan cotton industry, in common with many European countries and the United States, was the first large-scale application of modern technology and the factory system.
[3] The origins of this industry can be traced back to the early 18th century when it began producing printed cloth chintz, known as indianes locally.
This was driven by government bans on imported chintz from India and the opening of trading opportunities with Spain's American colonies to Catalan merchants.
[5] From the middle of the 19th century the industry was increasingly protected as the costs of raw cotton, energy & machinery in Spain made it difficult to compete globally.
There was increasing strife in Spain, a declining economy, civil war and then from 1939, the policy of autarky locked the industry out of the post WW2 global growth and investment.
[10] The colonies were also a powerful magnet attracting labour and spurring territorial population redistribution across the country, with implications for the politics of today.
[11][12] The first chintz or calicoes (Catalan: indianes) arrived in Barcelona about 1650 possibly as European re-export from Marseilles, then Europe's principle route to India.
Firstly in 1717, Asian textiles were banned, probably as a result of complaints from Cádiz & Seville merchants about the Philippines ruining their own re-export business to Mexico.
[24][25] As demand for brandy and wine to northern Europe grew, this international trade provided the basis for the entire transformation of the Catalan economy and the textile industry in particular.
Secondly the viticulture generated excess capital that could be invested in ship construction and increasing trade, importantly to the American colonies, in printing ventures (and later, as described in the next section, in machinery).
[31][32] Printing grew rapidly, stimulated by the period of rising population growth and prosperity in the second half of the eighteenth century that Spain enjoyed.
[21] Manufacturing took place in workshops that were built in the ground floors of buildings inside Barcelona's medieval walls in the Sant Pere neighbourhood where dying of cloth had been a traditional craft.
[33][34] Printing remained concentrated in Barcelona due to the existence of artisans of the medieval textile guilds which provided a workforce with appropriate skills, once they had learnt the techniques from immigrants from Marseilles, Hamburg and Switzerland.
[35] Training in engraving and drawing provided by the Escola de Belles Arts founded by the Royal Barcelona Board of Trade in 1775 was crucial for industry growth.
[39] This period is termed pre-industrial or proto-industrial because it is characterised by a gradual expansion in spinning and weaving through putting-out throughout Catalonia and included, from around 1790, the first steps in introducing machinery which had been invented in England.
[40] Once introduced, the technology was widely and quickly adopted by small domestic workshops throughout a in the cottages in the traditional textile areas of central Catalonia and the Pyrenean foothills.
[47] From about 1806, the adoption of the more advanced English spinning mule was facilitated by the Fontainebleau Pact which made it easy to purchase French copies of this technology.
[51] Weaving became even more widespread than spinning with concentrations (in descending order of importance) in Mataró, Berga, Igualada, Reus, Vic, Manresa, Terrassa and Valls.
[55] The industrial era really began in 1833 with the installation of the first steam engine in Spain at the new Bonaplata Factory (also called El Vapor) made possible by the removal of restrictions by Britain on the emigration of expert labour in 1825.
[56] The company was formed by men from three main sectors of the industry: import and manufacture of machinery (Bonaplata) who made extensive visits to England, printing (Rull) and spinning and weaving (Vilaregut).
[59] The number of boats laden with raw cotton arriving in Barcelona from America skyrocketed from 12 in 1827 to 65 in 1835 to 197 in 1840, the vast majority from Cuba and Puerto Rico.
By 1861, vertical integration predominated in the cotton industry (spinning, weaving and finishing in one factory) in order to gain economies of scale and efficiency.
[67] At the same time, the cotton industry stimulated wool textile production in Sabadell, Terrasa and Manresa, with the consequent decline of the traditional woolen centers of Castille.
[77] The high concentration in the Ter and Llobregat rivers meant that railways could be constructed profitably, and from about 1880 linked local coal mines to industrial colonies, reduced the cost of supplying cotton to them and provided a cheaper means to bring the textiles to market.
[66][79] There was a prevailing protectionist attitude of the Spanish governments of the period, uniting the interests of not just textiles but also of the cereals and the iron and steel industry.
[80] The lack of democratic representation during the Restoration meant governments were less able to resist powerful sectorial interests and this resulted in 'protection all round' without regard to rising production costs or competitiveness of exports.
Combined with the effect of the Spanish cabotage laws, within a few months this had re-ignited the Cuban War of Independence and which very soon resulted in Spain losing its last possessions and with it the cotton market.
[66] In spite of the set back, for the first couple of decades of the 20th century growth continued as a result of an expanding total and per capita Spanish national income[87] and the expansion of the railway network which had reduced costs to deliver products internally.
[89] A temporary boom also resulted during WW1, especially supplying France[90] but the subsequent peace saw 140 catalan textile factories close with an estimated 20,000 put out of work.
The Government's 1969 Plan for the restructure of the cotton textile industry encompassed closing marginal companies, destroying outdated machinery and reducing the workforce, ideally by re-allocation to new manufacturing sectors such as automobiles, metal processing, plastics, synthetic fibres and chemicals.
