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Royal Textile Factories in Spain, 1700–1800*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

J. Clayburn la Force
J. Clayburn la Force
Affiliation:
University of California at Los Angeles
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Extract

Spain ascended to dazzling heights in world affairs during the sixteenth century, thrust there by her political, military, and economic might. Until the seventeenth century began, her position seemed unassailable. Then, with agonizing helplessness, she slipped into a humiliating cycle of decline which persisted until only a shell of her greatness remained one hundred years later. Viewing Spain in such depths of misery, few observers could have guessed that her melancholy drift had ended when Charles II (1665–1700) died and Philip V (1700–1746) succeeded him in 1700. Yet as the Austrian lineage thus came to an end and the Bourbon dynasty began, Spain entered a new epoch marked by the unusually enlightened participation of government in Spanish economic affairs.

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Articles
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The Journal of Economic History , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , September 1964 , pp. 337 - 363
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1964

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References

1 Our understanding of Spain's decline, as well as of many other aspects of her economic history, owes much to the efforts of Earl J. Hamilton. For insights into the Spanish misfortunes of the seventeenth century, see the following by him: “The Decline of Spain,” Economic History Review, VIII, No. 2 (May 1938), 169–70Google Scholar; “Monetary Disorder and Economic Decadence in Spain, 1651–1700,” Journal of Political Economy, LI, No. 6 (Dec. 1943), 477, 492–93Google Scholar; “Money and Economic Recovery in Spain under the First Bourbon, 1701–1746,” Journal of Modern History, XV, No. 3 (Sept. 1943), 192–93Google Scholar; War and Prices in Spain, 1651–1800 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947), pp. 1, 9, 35, 36–37, 219Google Scholar.

2 Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter cited as AGS), Secretaría de Hacienda, legs, (legajos, or “bundles”) 762, 788; Bóneta, Eugenio Larruga y, Memorias Políticas y Económicas sobre los Frutos, Comercio, Fábricas y Minas de España (Madrid, 1787–1800), XIV, 217; XVI, 17Google Scholar; Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter cited as AHN), Consejo, legs. 50,135, No. 1; 51,501, No. 1.

3 During the last several years of the century, the momentum of these policies slowed, as Spain became embroiled in the political, religious, and emotional turmoil of France's Revolution and as a reactionary mood, perhaps a repercussion of France's troubles, swept the Peninsula.

4 Hamilton, War and Prices, pp. 37, 219–25; idem, “Money and Economic Recovery,” p. 193; Mounier, André, Les faits et la doctrine économiques en Espagne sous Philip V: Gerónimo de Uztáriz (Bordeaux: Imprimerie de l'Université 1919), pp. 63–64, 101–35, 168–76Google Scholar.

5 The term “royal factory” (fábrica real) commonly appeared during the period 1750–1800, for kings granted this label to many workshops and factories in recognition of their special achievements. Although kings awarded a few of these “royal factories” direct monetary aid along with the title, they conceded the majority of them only tax reductions on sales of their products and on purchases of material and machinery. Hence the title was but one element in a package of concessions and served only as an honorary distinction. The present article ignores factories of this type.

6 de Uztáriz, Gerónimo,. Theórica y Práctica de Comercio y de Marina (Madrid; 1742), p. 168Google Scholar; Mounier, Les faits, pp. 103–4.

7 A shortage of information makes it difficult to discover much about the kings' factory at Leon; however, in 1756 it employed 13 masters, 93 journeymen, 16 apprentices, and 64 other individuals, not including spinners. When Antonio Ponz visited Leon in 1782, he did not mention the factory but stated that, while in the recent past 170 looms had woven linens, the industry was decaying. In 1804, 34 to 38 looms at the poor house made linen, of which 16,000 to 20,000 varas were sent to Madrid each year. Perhaps this was all that remained of the factory. See the following: Archivo del Ministerio de Hacienda, Madrid (hereafter cited as AMH), Catastro de Ensenada, 7457, Leon, G; Ponz, Antonio, Viaje de España (Madrid, 1772–1794), IX, Carta VI, 1013Google Scholar; Almanaque Mercantil ó Guía de Comerciante para el Año de 1804 (Madrid, 1804), p. 429Google Scholar; Larruga, Memorias Políticas, XLV, 26; Antonio Matilla Tascón, Catálogo de la Colección de Órdenes Generates de Rentas (Madrid: Sucesores de Peña Cruz, 1950), I, 130. The mill at San Ildefonso, its history remaining even more shrouded by a nearly total absence of extant manuscripts, apparently was begun in the 1780's and. disappeared before 1800. See AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 756; Townsend, Joseph, A Journey Through Spain in the Years 1786 and 1787 (London, 1792) II, 114Google Scholar.

The Marquis de la Ensenada, acting on the suggestion of the Intendant of Valencia and for the government of Spain, brought four highly trained artisans from France to Valencia in 1753. He hoped to create a factory from which the knowledge of producing fine fabrics with threads of silver, gold, and silk would be diffused throughout Valencia. Ensenada, however, withdrew the government's support of the factory after the arrival of the artisans and, instead, permitted the Five Greater Guilds of Madrid to finance and develop it as a private venture. See: AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 789, 790; Capella, Miguel and Tascón, Antonio Matilla, Los Cinco Gremios Mayores de Madrid (Madrid: Imprenta Saez, 1957), pp. 134–45Google Scholar; Pujal, Jaime Carrera y, Historia de la Economía Española (Barcelona: Bosch, 1943–44), V, 491Google Scholar.

On November 25, 1781, Charles III established the most novel, though perhaps the least successful, royal factory at Seville. The novelty arises because at least fifty skilled Englishmen offered their services to this project rather than to remain in prisoner-of-war camps at Seville and Ecija. They had been interned after capture on the high seas by the Spanish navy during the current war. Although each artisan received a gift of 1,000 vellon reals, plus wages, bread, and subsidies for clothing, nearly all returned to England when the war ended and the King ignored their requests for higher wage rates. See AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 802; Archivo Histórico de Barcelona (hereafter cited as AHB), Junta de Comercio, LII, 3.

Manuel Colmeiro, José Luis Barcelo, and Mounier mention the establishment of a royal factory for woolens at Chinchón. All other sources, however, are silent regarding such institutions. See Penido, Manuel Colmeiro y, Historia de la Económica Político de España (Madrid, 1752), p. 243Google Scholar; Mounier, Les faits, p. 103.

8 Colmeiro, Historia, II, 218; Larruga, Memorias Políticas, XIV, 186; AHN, Consejo, legs. 51,501, No. I; Uztáriz, Theórica, p. 34.

9 The attempt of Spain to import skills and technology from Europe's leading industrial centers during the eighteenth century is the subject of a paper which I have written and which will appear in Technology and Culture during the summer of 1964. In this article, I have discussed in detail the methods by which royal authorities and private individuals recruited foreign workmen, the criteria used in selecting the various skills, and the terms of contracts between artisans and Spaniards. Also presented are both the defensive and offensive measures taken by other nations to protect their labor forces and technical knowledge from the incursions of Spain. As the article covers the troubles Spain had in recruiting and transmitting workmen, so it takes up in some measure the substantial difficulties the artisans faced once they set foot on the Peninsula. Religious persecution, guild opposition, and personal antagonisms and jealousies often made life harsh for aliens in Spain. These problems, and how kings sought to overcome them, the paper dwells on in some length.

The article then turns to the gains in technology that Spain experienced. It tells how she obtained advanced machines from the skilled immigrants, from foreigners who traveled to Spain solely to sell the innovations, and from agents sent abroad to obtain them by whatever means necessary. In addition, the article tells of the opposition that many of the technological advancements encountered, as well as the eager swiftness with which other machines and processes were adopted and put into use.

10 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs., 759, 761, 765, 766, 768, 771, 772, 774, 776, 784, 785; Larruga, Memorias Políticas, VIII, 95, and XX, 133.

11 Cardinal Alberoni, with the approval of Philip V, in 1718 commissioned John William, Eighth Baron of Ripperda, to form this factory. The Baron imported fifty artisans from his homeland in Holland and installed them at the Castle of Azeca (Vicens Vives states that they were sent first to Santander and then to El Escorial: Historia Social, IV, 176); then, in November 1719, he transferred them to Guadalaxara. Apparently the factory operated continually until 1820, in which year it ceased operating forever. See: AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 759; Larruga, Memories, XIV, 113, 117, 118; La Vuelta por España, Un Sociedad de Literatos (Barcelona, 1872), p. 106Google Scholar; de Bourgoing, Jean François, Modern State of Spain, translated from the 1804 edition (London, 1808), I, 101Google Scholar; Mounier, Les faits, p. 102.

12 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 764, 765; Bourgoing, Modern State, I, 103, and III, 19.

13 Ibid., legs. 764, 765. In 1768, Charles III moved the facilities to Brihuega, abandoning the buildings to the Guardias Españolas and Walloons. Then, after ten years, he transferred the facilities for making superfine woolens from Brihuega to Guadalaxara where these delicate fabrics still retained the name of San Fernando Paños. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 768, 772; Mounier, Les faits, p. 103.)

14 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 786; Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 19; Carrera y Pujal, Economía Española, IV, 166.

15 Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 161.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid., XIV, 148.

18 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 763; Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (hereafter cited as BN), Manuscritos, MS 13,005.

19 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 772, 773.

20 A vellon real equaled approximately five United States cents in 1792.

21 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 773.

22 Bourgoing, Modern State, I, 102; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 772.

23 Larruga, Memorias, XVI, 86, 87.

24 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 780; Larruga, Memorias, XVI, 108; Bourgoing, Modern State, I, 103.

25 Like many industrial organizations of the twentieth century, Guadalaxara developed branch factories. Ferdinand VI began the first at the Royal Site of San Fernando in 1746, and on April 1, 1750, he created another at the village of Brihuega. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 765, 776.)

26 Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 179.

27 Antonio Ponz, Viaje, VII, Carta II, 601; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 786.

28 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 756.

29 Ibid., legs. 755, 756.

30 Ibid., legs. 765, 768, 769, 771, 773; Larruga, Memories, XVI, 86–87.

31 Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 160.

32 Ponz, Viaje, VIII, Carta II, 600. By 1787, this mill had been transferred to Talavera and water power substituted for the oxen. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 786; Ponz, Viaje, VII, Carta II, 601).

33 Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 180, 181.

34 Ibid., VIII, 164.

35 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 755.

36 Ibid.

37 AHN, Consejo, legs. 41,066, fol. 46, and 50,135; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 767, 790, 802; Larruga, Memorias, XVII, 291, and XX, 85.

38 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 756.

39 AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generates de Rentas, X, 27; Larruga, Memorias, XVI, 5.

40 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 771, 773.

41 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 779; Townsend, Journey Through Spain, I, 240. These amounts do not rise nearly as swiftly when corrected for changes in the general level of prices. Using Earl J. Hamilton's index of nonagricultural prices in New Castile for the period 1651–1800, I found the deflated monthly subsidy to change in this fashion: 155,039 in 1750, to 166,528 in 1767, to 230,592 in 1769, to 320,770 in 1776, to 453,172 in 1779, and to 458,415 in 1788. The base period for Hamilton's index numbers is 1726–1750. (War and Prices, p. 172–73.)

42 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 768, 770.

43 Ibid., legs. 757, 758.

44 Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 106.

45 AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generales de Rentas, X, 418–19Google Scholar; XI, 19–26, 442; XII, 19–20; XIII, 58, 65, 66; XX, 615; XXII, 566; XXIX, 605–6; XXXI, 207; XXXIV, 267–68; XXXIX, 58. Also, AHN, Consejo, leg. 50,135; Fernandez, Francisco Gallardo, Origen Progresos y Estado de Rentas de la Corona de España (Madrid, 1805–1808), II, 397–98Google Scholar.

46 The alcabala and cientos were the two most famous, or infamous, transaction taxes. With a combined tariff of 14 per cent, the alcabala and cientos fell on most items every time they were sold, bartered, or otherwise exchanged.

47 AMH, Coleccion de Órdenes Generates de Rentas, XXXI, 547; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 778; Gallardo Fernandez, Origen, II, 283, 399.

48 Colmeiro, Historia, II, 219.

49 Larruga, Memorias, XIV, 166.

50 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 772.

51 Ibid., leg. 779. No data were found for the year 1785. When corrected for changes in the level of prices, it appears that losses may have peaked around 1775–76. The index numbers of nonagricultural prices in New Castile, 1651–1800, constructed by Earl J. Hamilton, were used here. Losses in constant vellon reals (base period 1726–50) rose from 478,983 in 1735 to 935,768 in 1775. They fell to 844,391 in 1782 and varied thereafter by from 50,000 to 60,000 annually. (War and Prices, pp. 172–73.)

52 José Canga Arguëlles, Diccionario de Hacienda, (Madrid, 1833–1834) I, 468; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 783. Canga Arguëlles held that sales receipts in 1798 amounted to only 5,700,000 vellon reals and, as a result, losses reached 5,805,748. There is sufficient archival support, however, to insist that sales exceeded 15,000,000 vellon reals in 1798.

53 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 784, 785.

54 Ibid.

55 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 786; Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 317.

56 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 767, 783; Larruga, Memorias, XVII, 286–91.

57 Larruga, Memorias, XX, 107. Another source indicates that only 1,329,326 vellon reals had been invested. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 756.)

58 AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generales de Rentas, XL, 167–72; Canga Arguëlles, Diccionario, I, 467; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 757, 758. Perhaps the Royal Factory of San Nicolas, established by Charles III on July 30, 1787; in an abandoned Jesuit seminary at Guadalaxara, was an exception. Through the efforts of Samuel Bird, its director, the factory announced profits of 26,179 vellon reals and 16 maravedis in 1791 and of 66,854 vellon reals in 1793. Unfortunately, this promising factory was short-lived, for when Bird died unexpectedly in 1797 the King moved his seven looms to the main factory. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 775, 776, 780, 781, 783, 784.)

59 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 759; Larruga, Memorias, XIV, 213.

60 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 759.

61 Ibid., legs. 782, 783.

62 Ibid., leg. 765.

63 Ibid.

64 Though kings found themselves unable to use price reductions successfully during the short run, they permitted prices of Guadalaxara's fabrics to rise slowly over the century. In 1740, serges sold for 7, 9½, and 11 vellon reals per vara, depending upon the color; in 1786, this range stood at 11, 12, and 13 reals per vara. During this period, the price range for fine stuffs rose from 48–68 vellon reals to 62–84 a vara. (Larruga, Memorias, XV, 163, and XVI, 97.)

65 Ibid., XIV, 126.

66 Ibid., XIV, 231–34, 251–57.

67 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 759; Larruga, Memorias, XIV, 199.

68 Larruga, Memorias, XV, 70–74.

69 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 762, 763; Larruga, Memorias, XVI, 1–2.

70 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 765, 766. Surpluses continued; and to escape them, Ferdinand VI leased the mill to the Guild of Woolen Merchants of Madrid from 1757 to 1767. The Guild abolished the provincial warehouses, reduced the output of textiles by one third, raised prices, and offered easier terms of sale. When Charles III took back the factory in 1768, at the Guild's request, he immediately began reestablishing provincial outlets and by 1776 operated them at Madrid, Cadiz, Seville, Zaragoza, Valencia, Santiago, Oviedo, Granada, Valladolid, Cartagena, La Coruña, and El Ferrol. Hoping to encourage independent merchants to sell his cloth, Charles closed these competing outlets in 1785 and gave merchants substantial discounts on royal textiles. Within four years, however, he had abandoned the discount method and had reopened his provincial establishments. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 768, 771, 774, 780; Larruga, Memorias, XVI, 58.)

71 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 759.

72 Larruga, Memories, XIV, 215.

73 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 766.

74 Ibid., legs. 765, 766. The Spanish government carried the risk in this venture. (Ibid., leg. 765.)

75 Ibid., leg. 782.

76 Ibid., leg. 781. One should not too quickly condemn these overseas transactions as being without merit. When Spanish kings shipped part of their surpluses to foreign and American markets and succeeded in selling them for more than the transport costs, they recovered at least part of their production outlays and thus minimized their losses.

77 Larruga, Memorias, XV, 65.

78 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 782; Larruga, Memorias, XIV, 164, 215, 269; Mounier, Les faits, p. 105.

79 The factory at Almarzo closed when Charles III refused to advance more funds for its completion; the factory at Seville ceased to exist when a majority of English prisoners returned to England after the war; and the Royal Factory of San Nicolas, as stated in n. 58, died with Samuel Bird in 1797. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 767, 783, 802; Larruga, Memories, XVI, 47; Carrera y Pujal, Economía Española, IV, 101.)

80 Charles IV ceded the factory at Avila to Augustin Betancourt, a celebrated French machinist. See, AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generales de Rentas, LVIII, 167–72; Enrique Herrera Oria, La Real Fábrica de Tejidos de Algodón Estampados, de Ávila, y la Reorganización Nacional de Esta Industria en el Sigh XVIII (Valladolid: Casa Social Católica, 1922), p. 40; AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 785.

81 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 786, 787, 788; Ponz, Viaje, VII, Carta II, 601; Larruga, Memorias, VIII, 314–15, 317, and XVI, 37, 42, 43, 47.

82 Though textile factories were appearing in England during the first three quarters of the eighteenth century, they normally were limited to certain stages of production process. Even with the great technological advancements in textiles that occurred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, fully integrated factories were the exception.

83 Larruga, Memorias, XX, 159.

84 Ibid., XV, 146.

85 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 771, 779.

86 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 757; AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generales de Rentas, XLI, 282–89; Herrera y Oria, La Real Fábrica (cited in n. 80), 28–29.

87 AMH, Colección de Órdenes Generales de Rentas, XLIII, 167–72Google Scholar.

88 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 756, 767, 784, 785; AHN, Consejo, legs. 50,134, 51,524, 53,176; Larruga, Memorias, XVII, 286; Bourgoing, Modern. State, I, 102.

89 For example, neither Henry Doyle, who directed the factory at Almarzo, nor Patrick Boulger, who directed the mill for woolens at Avila, had had experience in managing a textile factory, let alone a workshop. And John Riley obtained the directorship of the factory at Seville even though his reputation as a drunkard had spread north of Seville. (AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 756, 767, 783, 802; AHN, Consejo, legs. 41,066, fols. 46 and 313; 50,135; Larruga, Memorias, XVII, 286.)

90 Larruga, Memories, XX, 158–59.

91 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 775, 777.

92 Larruga, Memorias, XIV, 167.

93 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 759, 761, 762, 765, 766, 769, 771, 774–76, 778–81. Also, Larruga, Memories, XIV, 247; XV, 76, 191; XVI, 11, 119; and Bourgoing, Modern State, I, 103.

94 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, legs. 762, 766, 767, 770, 775, 777, 779, 782; Larruga, Memorias, XV, 190. In order to counteract competition from new fabrics, kings occasionally ordered Guadalaxara to imitate the innovated textiles; but more often they established new factories or adapted old ones to produce the new products. The Royal Factory of San Nicolas, for example, produced superfine stuffs that were both narrower and lighter than customary stuffs. And the English at San Fernando in 1788 wove colorful textiles from silk and wool thread. Moreover, on March 16, 1768, Charles III adapted the branch factory at Brihuega to manufacture second-class woolens with narrower dimensions and from second-grade wool. Nevertheless, these efforts offered only token resistance to the rapid proliferation of styles.

95 Hamilton, War and Prices, p. 100, n. 18.

96 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 755.

97 The village of Bejar, in the province of Salamanca, had begun to produce fine woolen stuffs at the end of the seventeenth century when Flemish artisans settled there. One of the largest and most industrious centers in central Spain, Bejar maintained about 150 looms from 1750 to 1800 and wove some fine but mostly medium-fine stuff. (Larruga, Memorias, XXXV, 116–44.) Another center for fine woolens appeared in Segovia, when Laureano Ortiz de Paz obtained the facilities of the defunct Royal Company, of Segovia on August 20, 1779. Ortiz de Paz apparently produced fine and superfine stuffs during the remainder of the century. (Ibid., XII, 262–75.)

98 Output dropped in the provinces of Extremadura, La Mancha, Cuenca, Soria, Palencia, and Toro; output varied only slightly in Segovia, Valladolid, Toledo, Avila, Burgos, Aragon, Salamanca, Granada, Madrid, Murcia, Seville, and Zamora.

99 Álcoy in Valencia, and Tarrasa, Sabadell, Esparaguera, Olesa, Igualada, Monistrol, Castelltersol, and Moya in Catalonia were some villages in which textile production expanded.

100 AGS, Secretaría de Hacienda, leg. 765.

101 Larruga, Memories, VIII, 166–67, 226, 230, 233.

102 Colmeiro, Historia (cited in n. 7), II, 220; Bourgoing, Modem State, I, 106.