Agricultura y propaganda: el nitrato de Chile en España

The introduction of chemical fertilizers in Spanish agriculture entailed a transition to industrial agriculture, which was increasingly controlled by the chemical industry. Crop yields increased due to nitrogen fertilizers. Among them, Chilean nitrate remained the most important throughout the nineteenth century and until the First World War. The use of Chilean nitrate in agriculture increased not only because of its qualities in the fertilization process but also due to the pressure exerted on farmers by fertilizer merchants and manufacturers. This was reflected in efforts at marketing that were carried out as a means of increasing the consumption of nitrate and of competing with its most important rivals, the industries producing ammonium sulphate and the emerging product of synthetic nitrogen (nitrate of lime and cyanamide). The documentation used here was deposited in the Institute of Agricultural History at the University of Reading, U.K., by the Permanent Nitrate Committee (PNC) of London. Other rare or inaccessible books consulted on this subject can be found in the library collection of the International Institute of Agriculture, housed in the David Lubin Memorial Library of the FAO, in Rome, Italy.