Between the market and the state: Ibáñez, the Marquis of Sargadelos (1749–1809), a Spanish businessman sailing against the tide

ABSTRACT

When Spain began the transition from the Old Regime to liberalism, the business career of the Marquis of Sargadelos was unique. In an institutional scenario in which being a ‘profit seeker’ was an almost indispensable prerequisite to overcoming the steep barriers to the entry of manufacturing initiatives, and in a society where the capital accumulated in commercial and manufacturing ventures was diverted to the purchase of rural land, Ibáñez was an exception to the norm in two senses: first, for his willingness to take a risk on new industries, and second, for his efforts to update the available technology. It is in this sense that he might be described as a ‘Schumpeterian entrepreneur’. The aim of this article is to consider Ibáñez’s business career from a new perspective, both what it has in common with the classical business cycle of the time and the unique features of his industrial initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Blast furnaces
• Ibáñez
• Enlightenment
• military industry
• liberalism
• Sargadelos (Lugo
• Galicia)
• state
• privileges

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 With almost 10,000 linen weavers, the Galician rural cottage industry was the most important in Spain. Between 1784 and 1795, Galician imports of Russian flax accounted for 65% of the total for Spain: See Carmona Badía, 1990, pp. 67–101.

2 The ‘strong peso,’ or ‘8-real’, was a silver coin; its high intrinsic value made it the most widely used currency internationally during the colonial period.

3 National Historic Archive: Status, (file 6301): «Statement of historical facts of D. Antonio Raymundo Ibáñez».

4 National Historical Archive (AHN): Status, volume 5: State Council Minutes (18 June 1792).

5 Archive of Marina A. de Bazán (AMAB): Personal matters, 132 (1798). Also see: Meijide Pardo, 1979, pp. 91–94 and Carmona Badía, 1993, p. 14. The smelting of cast iron and ductile iron employed 255 workers who earned approximately 750,000 reales per year. For a detailed description of the business, see: Carrasco y Sayz (1905) and Hernández Sampelayo (1931).

6 To ensure steady operation, a charcoal-fed blast furnace required 2,000 hectares of forest and the labour of 100 to 120 peasants during six months of the year in charcoal-making and transportation. With the exception of eastern Europe, where serfdom was the dominant labour system, few companies could meet these requirements without military jurisdiction over the forest and the labour force. See Carmona Badía (1993), p. 27 and Carmona Badía (2012), p. 81.

7 National Historical Archive (AHN): Status: file 6301. Artillery Factories.

8 The higher costs at Trubia were due to an excessive payroll (wages accounted for 49% of the final cost) and investment in its two blast furnaces. Its costs skyrocketed when it could no longer use coal; it had to resort to charcoal, which was scarce and produced in forests that did not belong to the foundry. The initial budget for the Royal Factory was that a quintal of munitions could be produced for 9 reales. See Ocampo Suárez-Valdés (1987), pp. 60–63; See Carmona Badía (1993).

9 See AHN, Treasury, volume 10,841, pages 592-593, cited in Meijide Pardo (1979), p. 255.

10 Citations in General Archives of Simancas (AGS): Treasury Council: Board of Trade: file 296, exp. 21.

11 Imizcoz and Guerrero, Business and political clientelism: Northern entrepreneurs in the economics of the Bourbon monarchy.

12 Archives of Marina A. de Bazán (AMAB): Arsenals: Nalón and its businesses: file 1796–7. Vid. Helguera Quijada (1988).

13 Citations in the Naval Museum Archives (Madrid): Guillen Collection (CMLXXII), ms. 2175, and Archive of Marina A. de Bazán: Arsenals, files 17–91 (La Cavada). Vid. Helguera Quijada (1988).

14 Archive of Marina A. de Bazán (AMAB): Liérganes and La Cavada, files 1796-1797 (A. R. Ibáñez’s proposal to the Royal Treasury for a general seat by which to provide it with all the fossil carbon, (San Ildefonso, 23 August 1796). Citations in Ocampo Suárez-Valdés (1987), pp. 58–63.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joaquín Ocampo Suárez-Valdés

Joaquín Ocampo Suárez-Valdés is Full Professor of Economic History at Oviedo University (Spain). He has published in the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Labor History, Revista de Historia Industrial and Historia Agraria. His research focuses on history of economic thought and entrepreneurial history. He has participated in projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy.

Patricia Suárez Cano

Patricia Suárez Cano is Associate Professor of Economic History at Oviedo University (Spain). She has published in numerous journals, including Labor History, Papers in Regional Science and Small Business Economics. She has been interested in the field of labour history and entrepreneurial history. She has participated in projects funded by international and national authorities such as the OECD or the Spanish Ministry of Economy.