Desenvolupament i subdesenvolupament de les terres de l’Ebre durant els segles xviii i xix.

Identifier:  TDX:1821

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TDX1821

Authors:  Agramunt Bayerri, Agustí

Abstract:
The current thesis analyses the transition period from Ancient Regime to Capitalism during the18th and 19th centuries in the Ebro Catalan region. On one hand, we focus the attention in industrial and trade activities, and on the other hand, in the improvement of transport infrastructures and Tortosa's urbanism. The lack of competitiveness of local workshops and the Napoleonic wars erased definitively the rest of the regional old secondary sector. The south of Catalonia began a process of general agrarisation. Logistic activities could survive a few years more. During the18th century, the leasing of manorial rents had energised business, but by the end of the century, this activity also was weakened by excessive Tortosa taxes and the increasing of Camp de Tarragona's commercial attraction. The economic contraction and the delay in demographic growth happened in the south of Catalonia meant that Tortosa lost its political status. Nevertheless, its polical elites continued having direct contact with the central state. However, as of the 40s of the19th century, the situation changed. There was demographic growth after the Carlist Wars and also the effects of agricultural intensification of Ebro Delta and inland plains, and therefore, internal demand was reactivated. At the same time, despite the failure of modernisation of steampowered river navigation, The Royal Company of Ebro Canalisation and its investment favoured an increase of the services sector. Finally, with the arrival of the railway, the food transformation industry, focused on exportation, arose. This new social, demographic and economic context unblocked any complications, permitting the city's urban expansion from 1886 onwards. Eventually, the main conclusions have been compared with the history of English city of Norwich.