INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN SPAIN: HISTORY AND WHY DID IT FAIL? - HISTORY - 2025

The Industrial Revolution in Spain was the process of transformation from the agrarian and artisan economy to an economy based on factories and the use of machines. The First Industrial Revolution began in England in the second half of the 18th century, and lasted until about 1860.

What led to this process was the conjunction of machinism together with a series of factors that were aligned economically, politically and socially. In contrast, in nineteenth-century Spain this process began late compared to other countries such as Great Britain, France and Germany.

Some authors point out that in Spain there was not really an industrial revolution in the strict sense, but rather an industrializing process. By 1830, when Spain's industrialization process began, the kingdom had a subsistence economy based on agriculture and mining.

By the beginning of the 20th century, the situation had not changed to a greater degree, except in regions such as Catalonia and northern Spain, where there was a strong industrialization drive in the textile and steel sector.

First Industrial Revolution in Spain

The takeoff or first impulse of the Spanish industrialization process began late. That is why there is talk of the late Industrial Revolution in Spain.

The First Industrial Revolution in the world began in England in the mid-18th century, and lasted until the end of the first half of the 19th century.

Other countries such as France, Germany and the United States began this process earlier, behind England, between 1820 and 1860. These countries represented the second industrial generation.

Despite the fact that Spain began its industrialization with this group, its true take-off was not possible due to several factors. At the beginning of the reign of Isabel II (1833) the Spanish Empire began this process; Until then, it had lacked sufficient capital to support the launch and a firm start.

Investments from abroad partly made up for this capital limitation and industrialization began to advance. At this stage, international finance capital and technological advances helped drive the industrialization process.

Isolated cases of industrialization

Some progress was made in the textile industry in Catalonia, specifically in the 1940s. 1229 machines were imported between 1836 and 1840; by the middle of the century, the use of the steam engine in the Catalan textile industry was already daily.

By 1847 there were about 28,000 looms with about 97,000 textile workers. In 1848 the first railway line that covered the route from Barcelona to Mataró was inaugurated in Spain and was 28.25 kilometers long. At the same time, in the north of Spain there is another industrialization base isolated from the steel industry.

In 1840 furnaces were installed to feed the Trubia factory in Oviedo, dedicated to the arms industry.

Mining at this time had not yet been regulated in terms of the use of the subsoil. Until then, Spain lived at the expense of the mineral wealth that it took from its colonies in America, so it did not worry about this sector.

Later, many mining companies were formed, particularly right there in Catalonia. However, especially the coal industry remained stagnant. The mineral coal will not be used until 1848.

Political situation

The first three decades of the 19th century in Spain elapsed between the wars of independence of the American colonies. The Spanish hacienda was exhausted to support the incipient industrialization.

It was a long period of industrial backwardness and stagnation, as it happened in the rest of the Spanish kingdom. In the second decade of the 19th century, Spain was just recovering from the French invasion.

The political situation did not help the plans for early industrialization, much less the absolutism of Fernando VII.

However, an effort was made. The capital and the legal adaptation of Spain for the industrialization purpose began to move with the approval of the first confiscation laws.

In 1850 the industrialization process emerged in Spain, but it did not have the same significance as in other European countries, and neither did the political ideas that accompanied the process.

The year 1848 was marked by revolutions and liberal ideas throughout Europe, while in Spain there was a moderate period that lasted until 1868.

Second Industrial Revolution in Spain

By 1910 in almost all European countries the Industrial Revolution had ended. Most of the countries were undergoing a qualitative change in their respective industrialization processes. It is what is called the Second Industrial Revolution, the period that goes from the end of the XIX to the end of the XX century.

In Spain the economic situation at the beginning of the 20th century was different. Industrialization was low in most of the country; it remained a traditional society from the social and economic point of view.

70% of the economically active population worked in subsistence agricultural, livestock and craft work; that is, in the primary sector.

From agrarian to industrial

An attempt was made to adjust the country's march to that of others who, like Great Britain, were beginning a new stage. This leap consisted of the replacement of the traditional agrarian base by an industrial one.

This change was established in the basic sectors (cotton and steel), but the attempt failed because it was neither totally industrial nor revolutionary.

The European industrial development - predominantly English - had as its main characteristic that the changes were simultaneous in the economic, political, social, ideological, technical, commercial, agrarian, etc. All this led to the implantation of capitalism as a system of production.

On the other hand, Spain had a dual and ambiguous economy in which traits of a traditional and a modern economy subsisted; that is, subsistence production with mass production.

Why is it said that it failed?

The causes of the failure of the industrialization process in Spain have their explanation in several elements to consider.

The Spanish market was very small and fragmented, characterized by small rural production cells, with very poor exchange between them. Local markets were not interconnected due to the absence of adequate means of transport.

The demand was very low compared to the domestic markets of neighboring countries, as there was a low population density. Until 1860 the Spanish population barely grew: between 1797 and 1860 the population went from 10.4 million to 15.6.

Another reason was that the income level was very low compared to England and France. The state's situation continued to be deficient since the independence of the American colonies. The millionaire remittances that came from America could not be replaced by the internal Spanish economy.

Causes of the failure of the Industrial Revolution

Failures in the agricultural revolution

What had been a natural process in England, in Spain began belatedly through confiscation; that is, of the nationalization and sale of lands in the hands of the clergy, the colonial institutions and the nobility.

Failure of the commercial revolution

At the end of the War of Independence in 1814, an unbreakable process of American emancipation from the colonies ensued. The kingdom was mired in debt and bankruptcy.

With the loss of the colonies, Spanish foreign trade was emasculated. By contrast, in England the industrializing process was accompanied by increased trade.

Inadequate revolution in transportation

What characterizes the industrialized countries from the pre-industrial ones is the accumulation of social capital; This makes individual and collective investments more profitable. Within the capital stock are transportation systems.

Spain did not have a modern land, river and maritime trade network. After the wars of independence in America the shipping fleet was devastated.

Low strength in the textile and steel sectors

The Catalan case and the Spanish north were the exception in the textile and steel industry. The rest of the country lacked industries.

The cotton industry promoted the English Industrial Revolution and in Spain as well, but it was highly concentrated in Catalonia.

Comparison with more advanced countries in Europe

Several elements allow us to compare and deduce why the Industrial Revolution failed in Spain and was successful in other European countries.

At the end of the 19th century the agrarian structure was still semi-feudal and backward. The productivity of Spanish agriculture represented a third of that of the English.

Neither England nor Spain were producers of cotton in large quantities, most of it was imported. However, in the English case, the abundance of high-quality coal helped the industrial economy. This did not happen in Spain, since the coke from this country was not only of lower quality but also scarcer.

This, together with the high population density and the highest standard of living, made the cotton textile industry the most efficient in the world.

Another problem was the steel industry, which was established near the iron mines in Malaga, Bilbao, Avilés Sagunto. The problem was the limited availability of coal to feed the kilns. This made the Spanish industry less competitive.

Experts have indicated that the ideal would have been to install the steel industry outside the country, in England or Poland, which had large ferrous deposits.

Spain also did not have banks to finance the industrialization process, unlike England, Germany or France.

Education level

Another fundamental factor that Spain did not have was an adequate educational and technological level. On the other hand, the rest of the most important European countries had achieved it. By 1874, the Spanish illiteracy rate was 54.2% in men and 74.4% in women.

References

1. Lucas Marín, Antonio and García Ruíz Pablo: Sociology of Organizations. Mc Graw Hill, Spain, 2002. Accessed March 17, 2018.
2. The Failure of the Industrial Revolution in Spain, 1814. Consulted of uvadoc.uva.es
3. The late Spanish Industrial Revolution. Consulted of sobrehistoria.com
4. Industrial revolution in Spain. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
5. The Industrial Revolution and the changing face of Britain. Consulted of britishmuseum.org