Industria - History Lab

Dossier on establishing ironworks in the Philippines

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

This is a dossier containing several documents about forge masters and tools for their creation in the colony of the Philippines. The file contains different documents such as: Extracts, Letters, Decrees, Minutes of royal order…

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Cadastre of the Ensenada

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

Between 1750 and 1754 all the towns in “las Castillas” were subjected to an interrogation consisting of the following 40 questions: Name of the town (question 1); jurisdiction (2); extension and limits (3); types of land (4, 5); trees (6, 7, 8 and 13); measures of surface and capacity used (9, 10); species, quantity and value of fruits (11, 12, 14 and 16); tithes and first fruits (15); mines, salt mines, mills and other “artefacts” (17); livestock (18, 19 and 20); census of population, with neighbours, labourers, solemnly poor (21, 35 and 36), census of clerics (38) and convents (39); houses and other buildings (22); goods belonging to the commons (23), sisas and arbitrios (24), expenses of the commons, such as salaries, festivals, paving, fountains (25), taxes (26 and 27); industrial and commercial activities, with the utility of the goods or services produced: taverns, inns, shops, bakeries, butchers, bridges, boats on rivers, markets and fairs (29), hospitals (30), money changers and merchants (31), shopkeepers, doctors, surgeons, apothecaries, notaries, muleteers etc. (32); masons, stonemasons, masons, stonemasons, blacksmiths, cobblers etc. (33, 34); ships (37); alienated goods (28) and the King’s own revenues (40); the answers to these questions are obtained following a previously regulated process. This panoramic view of the Kingdom is a small part of a larger survey, the so-called Cadastre of the Marquis de la Ensenada, set in motion by Royal Decree of Ferdinand VI on 10 October 1749, as a preliminary step to fiscal reform, replacing the complicated and unjust provincial revenues with a single tax, the so-called Contribution. The Single Tax was never implemented, but it has left an important volume of documentation in our archives, the General Answers are kept in various State Archives. The General Archive of Simancas holds the complete certified copy of the replies of the 13,000 localities of the Crown of Castile. Preservation reasons led to the initiation of the microfilming process. In the 1980s, the 545 books of General Answers kept in Simancas were microfilmed. The frequent consultation of these collections and the need to facilitate access made digitisation advisable, which was carried out by the Document Reproduction Service (SRDAE) from microfilm during 2004 and 2005. The result is 350,000 images of documents with very neat calligraphic handwriting, easy to read and with hardly any abbreviations; very few pages have legibility problems, such as faded inks or ink transfer from the back. These images are now available on this page.

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The industry

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

In the 18th century, the enlightened project of the Bourbon Monarchy opened the doors of the guilds to women, eliminating the restrictions that had excluded them until then without incorporating new forms of production. From then on, the first public schools for girls from the lower classes were promoted, giving them an essential role in the tasks “proper to their sex” (those related to textiles). The textile workshops were spaces of sociability and mutual support for women who worked 12-14 hour days in less healthy hygienic conditions than the work suggests. Neither age nor health were clear limits to their involvement in the task of spinning linen, cotton, silk or wool, work that took place in factories in rural areas and, especially, in the domestic sphere. Some women became masters in trades linked to the textile industry, such as cordwainers or weavers, although this may be an exception.

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The washerwomen

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

The work of the washerwomen depicted in Goya’s composition shows one of the trades that remained intact in Madrid society until well into the 20th century. They are women who washed for their families, but also for middle- and upper-class people or for institutions such as hospitals and barracks. It was a widespread and low-income profession, as well as physically hard, as it required a stooped position and permanent contact with water. These washhouses were places of female sociability where women shared joys, knowledge, confidences, jokes and laughter. In 1790, a Royal Decree addressed to this group prohibited them from shouting and making obscene gestures to passers-by, which raises the question of male behaviour.

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The Industrial Revolution

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:48 +0000

3.32 minute video explaining the causes and consequences of the Industrial Revolution The educational video, edited by Happy Learning, is aimed at primary school children.

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