More industrial than once thought. Manufactures in 18th century Spain

This project arises from the results of our previous project, which opened new lines of national and international research. The new project intends to a) measure and b) explain the transformation of the occupational structure in the 18th centurywhat factors favored this transformation and what factors slowed it down. Our previous work with historical cartography specialists showed that a necessary first step is to locate industrial activity. We will also analyze what variables correlate with industrial activity (energy supply, labor supply, access to transportation networks, access to urban centers), which could explain competitive cost structures that would have compensated for scarce capital; and the extent to which measures like trade policy and infrastructure policy were also determinative. The unequal distribution of industry helps explain other territorial imbalancespopulation, wealth, infrastructures, services, and political weightwhich negatively affected those regions with less industrial activity. Our main theoretical and methodological principles include: 1. We believe that occupational structure is as relevant an indicator of economic and social modernization as GDP structure. We study structural changethe gradual loss of agricultural employment and the parallel growth of non-agricultural employmentto understand when and where such modernization took place. 2. Sectoral analysis of employment must include women, not only because they composed half of the labor force but also because they were concentrated in different sectors than were men; excluding them creates a distorted view of occupational structure. 3. We center our research in the preindustrial era, to find out where and how the Spanish population was working during the long 18th century, which ended approximately in 1820 with war and the resulting economic, social, and political turmoil. 4. We focus on the manufacturing sector, trying to locate and describe industrial activity in all of its forms. The industrial sector incorporates product and technical innovations more quickly than do other sectors, and so achieves productivity gains that are the basis for growth of per capita income and GDP. It is also the main source of exports. To locate industrial activity we will convert our databases to maps. Following the Cambridge Groups advances in industrial cartography, our project will constitute a qualitative and innovative leap forward in terms of sources, volume of data, and results. Situating manufacturing production across Spain for the entire 18th century will allow us to evaluate the impact of physical conditions; detect specializations, and patterns of diffusion; and compare territories. Our research confirms that a large portion of manufactures took place in rural households and workshops attached to employers homes. To ignore such domestic manufacturingor to group it with production for household consumptionaffects our understanding of women and childrens work. The main outcome of the Project is the publication of two ambitious works: the Atlas de las manufacturas en la España pre-industrial, and a book of essays: La era de las manufacturas. El crecimiento de la industria en la España del siglo XVIII. These two works, and the series of journal articles planned focusing on regional and sectoral analysis, will make a fundamental and innovative contribution to our knowledge of the roots of the modern economy and labor markets.