La fabricación de indianas en Barcelona durante el siglo XVIII: materia prima y producto elaborado entre el mercado mediterráneo y el atlántico

Abstract

The historical debate on the development of the manufacture of indianas (painted and printed cotton canvases) and calico in Barcelona in the 18th century has always focused on the weight of the national and colonial market at that stage. Of course, the supply of raw cotton for processing has followed two main routes: that from Malta, through which, into Catalonia and, since the 1880s, through the colonial channel. By this last route, cotton from the colonies of South America and the colonial territories of North America arrived at the ports of Seville and Cádiz, and then arrived in Barcelona. Otherwise, the finished product moved on completely different paths. Based on the economic policy inaugurated by Philip V of Borbón and strengthened by Charles III, the paper intends to highlight the importance of the national market in the development of the manufacture of printed cotton fabrics, highlighting, on the one hand, On the one hand, the role of Barcelona as a manufacturing center developed thanks to a process of import substitution, and on the other, the role played by a series of centers on the Peninsula as the main consumption and redistribution centers of the Indianas. In particular, the political decisions made by the Bourbon dynasty will highlight the mobility of an economic frontier that moves differently from the political one.