Identifier: TDX:394
Authors:
Puig Tàrrech, Roser
Abstract:
In the 18th century, Reus played an active role in Catalonia's demographic, economic and urban growth, becoming the Principality's second city, growing from some 4,000 to 16,000 inhabitants by 1802. The expansion began in the previous century, with the development of industrial manufacturing activities for wool, leather, esparto and pottery; and in the 18th century with a decisive switch to silk (which took the place of wool) and spirits, Catalan trade that used Salou as its port for exports.Reus became the commercial and economic capital of southern Catalonia, with a hinterland that included a good part of Camp de Tarragona, Priorat and Conca de Barberà areas and reached as far as Ribera d'Ebre, Urgell and Garrigues areas. It was a wealth-generating centre, which allowed a group of tradesmen to accumulate capital and become nobility, and it was a magnet for the surplus rural workforce.The local governing class was also the most powerful economically and had one clear objective: to make the city bigger and more modern, whilst also benefiting themselves. One of the ways to achieve this was to invest in public works; another was to control the areas they were responsible for (all that affecting public land), and that which we have looked at here, encouraging the construction of housing, so that the newcomers could add to Reus's population statistics. We have studied the access to housing via three documentary sources: notary (purchases), municipal (agreement ledgers, cadastres) and parish (records of church-goers), alongside records of assets.The housing put on sale came from private initiatives, following governmental paperwork or permits. Reus grew horizontally, with an important spread of occupation of urban land, and radially, around the nerve centre, Mercadal Square,
Repositori URV