Comerciantes - History Lab

Royal decree granting the five major guilds of Madrid exclusive privilege to transport to Spain from Morocco

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

Royal Decree granting the five major guilds of Madrid the exclusive privilege for 8 years to transport grain and other fruits produced in Morocco to Spain from the ports of Morocco

The post Royal decree granting the five major guilds of Madrid exclusive privilege to transport to Spain from Morocco first appeared on History Lab.

Printed matter on free trade for Spanish America in the ports of Bilbao and San Sebastián

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

In 1765, Cadiz’s monopoly on trade with America was ended, granting freedom of trade to eight Spanish seaports. In 1778 the Decree of Free Trade with America was promulgated. This prompted the regions peripheral to the Court, which had invested in different types of industries to trade with America. In this context, two of the ports that benefited were Bilbao and San Sebastian.

The post Printed matter on free trade for Spanish America in the ports of Bilbao and San Sebastián first appeared on History Lab.

Cadalso y Vázquez Vizcarra y Andrade, José de

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:42 +0000

Document containing the evidence presented by José de Cadalso y Vázquez to obtain the title of Knight of the Order of Santiago. The author of such well-known literary works as Cartas marruecas and Noches lúgubres, he had a military career, like many descendants of merchant families, which enabled him to apply for honours.

The post Cadalso y Vázquez Vizcarra y Andrade, José de first appeared on History Lab.

Shares of the Royal Company of San Fernando de Sevilla

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:14 +0000

The Real Compañía de San Fernando was founded in Seville in 1748 to promote trade in the Indies. Each share had a value of 250 pesos fuertes, worth fifteen reales de vellón. The rich engraved decoration on the share makes it a title of great aesthetic value. Its innumerable engravings include images of the Virgin Mary, Saint Ferdinand, Saint Isidore and various emblematic buildings of the city of Seville, such as the Casa de Indias and the Torre del Oro (Golden Tower) over the Guadalquivir. Pedro de Astrearena, the second Marquis of Murillo de Cuende by succession, was the king’s assistant and a shareholder in other trading companies, such as those of Havana and Buenos Aires.

The post Shares of the Royal Company of San Fernando de Sevilla first appeared on History Lab.

Origin of the vessels that arrived at the Valencia of the Cernesio family in 1615

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:56 +0000

The Milanese merchant family of the Cernesio family managed to evolve socially during the 17th century to become nobles of the Kingdom of Valencia. Their work as wheat merchants made them well known in the main ports of the western Mediterranean, supplying several cities and almost exclusively the granaries of the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. They also traded in cloth, foodstuffs, steel and horses, among others, showing the diversification of imports that passed through the Valencian ports of the 17th century in their name.
The arrival of the Cernesio family in Valencia was due, on the one hand, to the economic possibilities of such a city, and on the other hand, to the weakness of the local commercial bourgeoisie, which was beset by continuous economic crises.
To emphasise their role in the western Mediterranean, it can be seen from the resource that more than half of the ships that arrived for them came from ports on the Italian peninsula and from the aforementioned islands of Sardinia and Sicily. The data also show the extensive commercial network that involved the Cernesio family, receiving goods from a wide number of ports influenced by the family’s friendships and even resources from their own relatives.

The post Origin of the vessels that arrived at the Valencia of the Cernesio family in 1615 first appeared on History Lab.

Evolution of the number of local elite and merchant families in the Castilian hinterland (1761-1838)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:41 +0000

At the end of the Ancien Régime, the town of Albacete experienced an important demographic growth which led it to exercise a great power of attraction over the migratory and economic networks in the whole of eastern La Mancha. From a meagre 2,500 inhabitants in 1700, it gradually recovered its number of inhabitants, reaching over 5,000 in 1750. The years between 1750-1850 were those which represented an important quantitative change, not without enormous ups and downs, but which quadrupled the population. For the first years of the 1760s, the demographic estimate for the town, villages and hamlets of Albacete was 5,776 inhabitants, with 4,588 in the town centre alone. This figure increased 26 years later in the Floridablanca census to 8,261 inhabitants in the villages and hamlets as a whole and 6,679 people in the town. At the end of the 18th century, through the Godoy census, the town as a whole with its hamlets reached the figure of 9,552 and in 1861 it reached 16,000 inhabitants. The demographic increase in the population of Albacete was reflected in the same way in all social groups. In the case of the merchants, the growth was quite significant from the middle of the 18th century until the first third of the 19th century. With the social and economic expansion of the town after the 1740s and 1750s, and with particular force from 1780 onwards, the social and economic diversification of Albacete’s merchant community became evident, coinciding with a period of withdrawal on the part of the families of the local oligarchy. Many of the merchant families acquired greater power in the first third of the 19th century, who came from small shopkeepers and retailers, as well as master craftsmen who had become wealthy at the end of the 18th century.

The post Evolution of the number of local elite and merchant families in the Castilian hinterland (1761-1838) first appeared on History Lab.

Level of wealth of the bourgeoisie of León, 18th-19th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

During the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, different bourgeoisies developed in the city of León according to their professional specialisation: the commercial, financial, administrative and liberal professions bourgeoisie. The average wealth of all of them was 504,000 reals; 464,000 liquid if we discount debts and liabilities. However, there were large differences between sectors. The 3 families of the financial bourgeoisie, with an average of 893,883 reais, had 8 times more wealth than the bourgeoisie associated with the liberal professions: 116,489 reais on average for 9 families. The margins are completed with an average of 463,980 and 216,669 reais for the commercial and administrative bourgeoisie, respectively. In comparative methodology, the León bourgeoisie had lower values than those of Valencia, Cadiz or Vitoria, due to a less powerful domestic market than the port market.

The post Level of wealth of the bourgeoisie of León, 18th-19th centuries first appeared on History Lab.

Economic reproduction of bourgeois families in León, 18th-19th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

One of the most effective reproduction strategies of social groups was marriage. A good marriage could mean consolidation within a group, or promotion. The bourgeois families of the city of León were no strangers to the reality of their time. The resource shows the different average contribution of the spouses according to the sector to which they belonged within the bourgeoisie: commercial, financial, administrative or liberal professions. Overall, the average contribution of the spouses exceeded 200,000 reals, reaching 1,462,001 in the case of the financiers. The spouses brought most of their assets to the marriage, except in the case of liberal professionals. These well-matched couples saw their wealth increase not only with the marriage itself, but also with the commercial performance of their businesses. In fact, contributions to the marriage represented an average of 25.8% of their total wealth. Did second marriages follow the same trends? In this case, imbalances were observed in favour of the husband (if the wife was a widow or younger than the husband) or the wife (if the widow had younger children and owned a business).

The post Economic reproduction of bourgeois families in León, 18th-19th centuries first appeared on History Lab.

Transmission of the patrimonial assets of the León bourgeoisie, 18th and 19th centuries

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:13 +0000

Marriage contributions and the transmission of wealth through inheritance were the two main methods of perpetuating the family in the social group and promoting its promotion if conditions were favourable. This resource deals with the latter aspect: the transmission of the patrimonial assets of bourgeois families in the city of León between the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The bourgeoisies that the authors deal with are the commercial, administrative and liberal professionals. Together, the distribution of inheritances followed the Castilian system of inheritance; egalitarian. The liberal professional sector reproduced it in this way. However, within the Castilian framework, there was also the possibility of empowering an heir through the tercio de mejora and the quinto de libre disposición. Thus, the administrative bourgeoisie opted for the joint improvement of the third and fifth to one of the scions, leaving the total of the legitimate inheritance at 92.1%. The merchants followed the same trend, but with more attenuated values (95.6% of legitimate shares). In short, the distributions were fairly equitable in quantitative terms, but not in terms of the quality of the inheritance, because although the value tended to be the same, the business and the house went to a single first-born male.

The post Transmission of the patrimonial assets of the León bourgeoisie, 18th and 19th centuries first appeared on History Lab.

Distribution of the wealth of merchant families in Burgos, 1752-1850 (in reales and percentages of the value of the stock of inventoried goods)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:29:07 +0000

The city of Burgos during the 18th century, after the long decline suffered since the 1570s, recovered a large part of its demographic numbers, experiencing a 42% increase in population between 1752-1787. The economic recovery experienced in the last third of the 17th century shows a scarce presence of merchants that resurfaced in the following century, derived from the advance of agricultural production based on the increase in cultivated land and commercial development with the new export of wool. Analysing the internal structure of the patrimonial wealth, movable goods comprised 79.9% of the total patrimony, directly related to mercantile activity. After the importance of movable goods, explained by the exercise of the activity, in second place comes the possession and exploitation of livestock with 10.7%, dedicated to personal service, preferably mules for travelling. The third position is occupied by dwellings and complementary dependencies that exemplify the interest of the bourgeoisie in a type of investment considered fundamental for establishing and developing their businesses (houses and markets). As in the national average, the acquisition of farmland was of interest, with 4.4% indicating the family’s inclination towards investments considered attractive not only for their degree of security – as far as investment is concerned – but also for their strong social sense as a mirror of business success.

The post Distribution of the wealth of merchant families in Burgos, 1752-1850 (in reales and percentages of the value of the stock of inventoried goods) first appeared on History Lab.