Transportation and Economic Stagnation in Eighteenth-Century Castile

Abstract

Since at least the seventeenth century the economic development of Spain has been limited because the rates of growth achieved in the peripheral areas of Catalonia, Valencia, and Vizcaya were greater than that of the interior under the old Crown of Castile. The stagnation of the Castilian interior not only created a dull market for manufactured goods, but conserved a persistently strong traditionalist faction which long hampered Spanish political development. The resulting tension between the interior and the more modern peripheral sectors of society dominates Spanish history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The determinants of industrial location in Spain, 1856–1929

“…The means of transport were obsolete and the supply of transport, made up of farmers who combined this activity with agricultural work, was insufficient. Together, these factors resulted in a slow, expensive and generally inefficient land transport system (Ringrose, 1970;Gómez Mendoza, 1982) 6 .…”

Vine-growing in Catalonia: the main agricultural change underlying the earliest industrialization in Mediterranean Europe (1720–1939)

“…These traditional vine-growing had long existed as a complementary side into many Mediterranean polycultural landscapes that produced wheat, wine and olive oil in poly-cultural landscapes mainly oriented to local markets. As in other European places, there were several inner regions of Spain where land was mainly allocated to this kind of traditional viticulture that sold wine to other graingrowing, livestock raising, or fish-catching areas-such as the lands along the Duero River, La Rioja and Navarra that traded with the Northern Cantabrian coast, or in Castilla-La Mancha that supplied wine to Madrid (Ringrose, 1970;Pan-Montojo, 1994;Simpson, 1995;Carmona et al, 2001;Simpson, 2011). High transportation costs before the fossil fuels era entailed that most of these wines were only traded regionally ( Simpson, 2011).…”

Market potential and regional economic growth in Spain (1860–1930)

“…Before that date, during the 'Antiguo Regimen' (Ancient Regime), the Spanish market was fragmented into various local and regional markets that were largely unconnected. Historians have stressed two key elements to account for this situation: on the one hand, the persistence of institutional obstacles to interregional trade and, on the other, the fact that, Spain, a country which has traditionally had to confront serious geographical obstacles, experienced a relative backwardness linked to the deficiencies suffered by Spain's transport system (Ringrose, 1970). Yet, the second half of the 19 th century was witness to a progressive integration of the domestic market thanks to the institutional reforms undertaken by the various liberal governments, and to the progress of the transport system.…”