Crisis económica y respuesta empresarial. Los inicios del sistema fabril en la industria algodonera catalana, 1797–1839

This paper is aimed at analysing the origins of the factory system in the Catalan cotton industry. It concludes that the Catalan industrialisation process can be considered to have been founded during the crisis of the Spanish Ancien Régime. In order to show that, two different pieces of information are presented. Firstly, the appearance of the first mechanical spinning mills by the end of the 18th century, as well as the conditions that allowed it, are studied. Secondly, the subsequent modernisation of the sector after the Spanish War of Independence is analysed. We try to show that, after the crisis brought about by the loss of the Empire and the bankruptcy of the Treasury, the response of the sector mainly consisted of intensifying technical and organisational change and defending commercial prohibicionism.