References
- The researching and writing of this article were made possible by a grant from The Economic and Social Research Council (award reference R000238515). I would also like to acknowledge the support provided by the Institut d’Historia of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona, helpful referees’ reports and in particular the painstaking editorial work of Textile History which greatly facilitated revision for publishing.
- On this see E. Moreu Rey, Els imigrants francesos a Barcelona (segles XVI al XVIII) (Barcelona, 1959 ), pp. 36–38.
- J. Townsend, A Journey through Spain in the years 1786 and 1787, 1 (London, 1791), pp. 142–43; F. de Zamora, Diario de los viajes hechos en Cataluna (Barcelona, 1973 ), p. 60.
- The details of the introduction of the jenny, its development by de Gaubert, and the transfer to the Royal Company are in Biblioteca de Cataluna (henceforth BC), Junta de Comercio (JC), legajo (leg.) 23, file 14, V. 1–7.
- BC, Fons Gonima Janer (henceforth FGJ), Libro (henceforth L) 12, Llibre de Resoluciones de la R, Compa de Hilanzas de Algodones de las Fabricas de Barcelona, 1783, records decision made at the meeting of the Junta held on 15 December 1788.
- His lecture notes were published as Tratado teorico-practico de llevar libros departida doble (Barcelona, 1819 ) by his disciple, Antonio Ala.
- C. Aspin & S. D. Chapman, James Hargreaves and the Spinning Jenny (Helmshore, 1964 ), pp. 42–45.
- ‘Un año para hacer perfeccionar este mecanismo’ is the expression used by de Gaubert to emphasize the efforts which he had made on its behalf and thus support his claim for official support. BC, JC. leg. 23, V. 1–2.
- A ‘duro’ was a silver coin of five ‘pesetas’ or 20 reales. The term ‘duro’ signified that it was the ‘strong’ or ‘hard’ peso, distinguishing it from the ‘peseta’, a term coined by Catalans to denote the small peso.
- The Catalan money of account was the ‘libra’ of 20 ‘sueldos’ or 240 ‘denarios’. There were approximately 1.85 reales to the sueldo: thus a ‘duro’ of 20 reales represented 35 sueldos or 1 libra 15 sueldos. The change of the libra against the £ was 2 shillings 2 pence (a reminder: the £ too was divided into 20 shillings or 240 pence) consequently the duro payment would have represented an English daily wage of 3s. <iimg/>i and as it was paid seven days a week this would been a very high wage by English standards too, greater even at 26s. 6d. a week than the peak rate of 23s. paid to hand-loom weavers in 1805. P. Mathias, The First Industrial Nation (London, 1969), p. 206.
- Joseph Townsend, who records ‘M. Pontet’s’ working for the Royal Spinning Company at the time of his visit to Barcelona in 1786, states that he had brought a model of the machine with him. Later evidence shows that there was a half size machine, or a machine which produced half as much yarn and presumably had 18 spindles, among the jennies handed over to the Royal Company — this might have been the ‘model’. Townsend, op. cit., vol. I, p. 141; BC, FGJ, 54/2, ‘Observaciones que pareze podrian hazerse sobre el uso de las Maquinas’.
- BC, JC, leg. 23, file 14, f. 4. That it was a seven-day-a-week rate is apparent from Pradel’s being paid over 600 libras for 11 months’ employment in October 1785 (see de Gaubert’s accounts presented to the Intendant, BC, JC, leg. 23, file 14, f. 4). The master’s rate is that charged by Benet Ardit to the company in accounts for the period 12 February to 28 March 1787 (BC, FGJ, 53/1).
- Details of the repairs to parts of the machine, which conform fully with the drawing, establish that the machine imported to Barcelona was of the French, 1780 type. On this see my article ‘La introducció de les maquines jenny a Barcelona (1784–1789 ): les primeres etapes en la creació d’una tradicio de construcció de maquinaria’, Recerques 42 (2001).
- BC, JC, leg. 23, file 14, f. 4 for the marquis’s accounts from which these details are drawn.
- Ibid. In the accounts the payment of the travel costs of this additional worker is alongside the payment for the secret: this is what makes me believe that he came to Barcelona to implement the application of the ‘secret’ to the cotton before spinning.
- Ibid., V. 1–2.
- BC, JC, leg. 23, file 14, V. 1–4: this section is largely drawn from the report of the Intendant concerning Gaubert request for assistance (V. 1–2) and de Gaubert’s accounts, ‘Importe del gasto hecho para la construcción de las maquinas’ (f. 4) which permit the tracing of the stages in the machine-making activities of Pontet and Pradel.
- BC, JC, leg. 14, V. 6–7, Report of Antonio Pongem and Felix Prat to Junta de Comercio, 23 February 1786.
- See Y. Okuno, ‘Entre la llana i el cotó. Uña nota sobre l’extensió de la indüstria del cotó als pobles de Catalunya el darrer quart del segle XVIII’, Recerques (1999 ), pp. 47–76.
- BC, JC, leg. 23, file 14, V. 1–2.
- BC, FGJ, L14, Borrador de la Compa de hilanzas de algodones, f. 255 & 65/1, Agreement between de Gaubert and the directors, 8 April 1786.
- ‘Fabrica’ was the term for a substantial industrial concern. There were specific requirements for calico-printing companies to qualify for this status including the operation of a minimum of 12 looms. These, however, by the late 1780s were slipping into disuse. See J. K. J. Thomson, ‘State Intervention in Catalan Calico-Printing’, in M. Berg ed., Markets and Manufactures in Early Industrial Europe (London, 1991 ), pp. 57–89, and A Distinctive Industrialization. Cotton in Barcelona, 1728–1832 (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 148, 183–84.
- BC, FGJ, 53/5, Comte de fuster de lo cen fit en las Maquinas de fillar coto per ordre de Sr. Dn. Mariano Rubira, Benet Ardit, undated. That the machines had been installed in Salgado’s manufacture is revealed by Benet Ardit’s accounts and also in the Borrador of the Company (BC, FGJ, L14, 16 March 1787, payment of rent to Salgado).
- BC, FGJ, L12, Llibre de resoluciones, 15 December 1788.
- BC, FGJ, 51/11, Notas dels gastos que a fet Valenti Cisterna comensa lo dia 3 de avril per las Maxinas.
- BC, FGJ, L14, Borrador de la Compa de Hilanzas de algodones de las fabricas de Barcelona, 1783–88: on 7 April Pontet received 19 libras 3 sueldos 9 dineros for ‘gastos de plantificación’ and Pontet 112 libras 10 sueldos ‘a cuenta de sus travajos en dha plantificación y demas travajos’.
- BC, FGJ, 55/4, the first payment for spinners is for 29 April, one spinner being owed for 81 days work, which would mean a start in the course of 21 April.
- BC, FGJ, 53/5. In February 1786 he had received support from the Junta de Comercio for the construction of a silk twisting machine (BC, JC, leg. 23, file 13, V. 1–16).
- The receipt is on the back of de Gaubert agreement with the directors of the company of 8 April 1786 (BC, FGJ, 65/1). For more information on Ardit’s origins see Thomson, ‘La introducció de les maquines jenny a Barcelona’.
- Townsend, Journey through Spain, vol. I, pp. 141–43. His arrival and departure from Barcelona were 12 April and 6 May (pp. 106, 188). The positioning of the report in his text, and the fact that spinning only began on 21 April, would suggest a visit towards the end of the month, shortly before his departure. The description might have been based on a verbal report but the detailed description of the cotton-cleaning machine and the possibility he mentions of describing the jenny suggest an actual visit.
- BC, FGJ, L18, correspondence of manufacture for 1785 and 1786 shows a profound problem of bad debts of rural spinners taken on in an over-precipitate expansion in its spinning following the end of the American war.
- BC, FGJ, the account with the Royal Company was opened on 10 April 1786.
- Records of the labour force of a substantial, early spinning concern of Severo Vila in Tarragona show the following break-down in the ages of the female spinners:
- and below, 5; 11–15, 70; 16–20, 49; over 21, 2. Arxiu Arcodiocesa de Tarragona, Legajos del pontificado de Armanya, 1787–88, V. 104–70, letter and report of Bishop to Floridablanca, 27 February 1790.
- The wage records on which the last paragraphs are based are from BC, FGJ, 55/4.
- BC, FGJ, L12, Llibre de Resoluciones, 17 September 1787.
- They are contained in BC, FGJ, L14, Borrador.
- BC, FGJ, L12, meeting of directors’ Junta, 31 October 1786.
- The situation of the various buildings is recorded in BC, FGJ, 51/3 which contains receipts for rent paid on the buildings.
- The difficulties being experienced by the company are detailed in the Llibre de Resolucions of the Royal Company for 28 September 1786 and in a lengthy ‘relacion’ which was delivered to the general meeting of the Company on 5 October 1786. BC, FGJ, L12 and 47/5, records of Juntes de Socis, 5 October 1786. See also Y Okuno, ‘Entre la llana i el coto’.
- As it was described by the locksmith Anton Orta in a bill which he presented in the course of 1789. BC, FGJ, 53/2.
- BC, FGJ, L12, Llibre de resolucions.
- BC, FGJ, 53/2.
- Except where stated the source for all the details here, and which will follow, on refurbishing the manufacture, are drawn from BC, FGJ, 53/2, ‘factures de feines fetes i despences de maquinaria’.
- BC, FGJ, 52/4.
- Cisterne’s role in weighing yarn produced is mentioned in regulations for the labour force which were drawn up in 1788. BC, FGJ, 47/1.
- In this reconstruction I have used the receipts for repair work as well as the inventory of the manufacture’s furniture and equipment carried out in 1794 even though, by then, these had been transferred to another building.
- BC, FGJ, 53/1.
- BC, FGJ, 52/4, inventory of 13 January 1794.
- BC, FGJ, Ardit charge 1 libra 10s for ‘per fer un banch de cardar de cardar coto’ on 2 June 1786.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 29 April 1790: need of space ‘principally for the drying of the cotton after the treating it with the dressing, for which operation a lot of space is needed’.
- See Thomson, Distinctive Industrialization, pp. 82, 84, 138–39, 140–41, 205–06.
- BC, FGJ, 52/2 for the maintaining of the secret. An account of Cisterne’s with purchases of starch is for October 1786 (FGJ, 53/1).
- BC, FG-J, BC, FGJ, 53/1, Accounts of Benet Ardit presented on 21 August 1787.
- The results for the second fortnight were not drawn up separately. I have calculated them by means of subtracting the figures for the first fortnight from those which were drawn up for the full four-week period.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 30 October 1787. Recorded in the minutes are both the directors’ initial response to the bad production results and their response to Marti ‘s new initiative.
- BC, FGJ, 54/2, ‘Observaciones que pareze podrian hazerse sobre el uso de las Maquinas’.
- BC, FGJ, 54/2, ibid.
- The calculation consists in 13 full-size machines producing 6 lb of yarn each and the half-sized machine 3 lb.
- BC, FGJ, 54/2, ‘Observaciones que pareze …’.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 30 October 1787. Recorded here are both the initial reactions to the poor results and the response to Marti ‘s proposal made on the day.
- BC, FGJ, L14, borrador, for first purchase and L11, Llibre de magatzem, for the others.
- See Marti ‘s calculations in BC, FGJ, 54/2.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 27 March 1788.
- BC, FGJ, 54/2.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 15 December 1788.
- BC, FGJ, 47/1 Regulations for workers.
- Ibid.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 15 December 1788.
- BC, FGJ, L12, 15 December 1788.
- BC, FGJ, 53/2, accounts for 27 April to 9 June 1789.
- The point is made in many of his studies see e.g. the chapter ‘Steel’ in his last work Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer. Britain and France in the Eighteenth Century (Aldershot, 1997 ), p. 220.
- BC, FGJ, L12, Llibre de Resolucions, 26 August and 21 September 1790.
- BC, FGJ, 51/7, Machine buying, receipt of 15 January 1791.
- BC, FGJ, Lllibreta de semanadas, 15 January-19 February 1791.
- F. de Zamora, Diario de los Viajes Hechos en Cataluna (Barcelona, 1973 ), p. 315.
- Cited by Thomson, Distinctive Industrialization, p. 257.
- On the acceleration in mechanization see Thomson, Distinctive Industrialization, pp. 255–60; A. Sola, ‘Industria textil, maquines i fabriques a Berga’, L’Erol, 47 (1995 ), 12–15; A. Benet Clara, ‘La industrialitzacio d’un poble de la Catalunya central: Sallent (1750–1808)’, Segon Congres d’Historia Moderna de Catalunya. Pedralbes, Revista d’Historia Moderna, 8, i (1988), 329–48; L. Ferrer Alos, ‘Les primeres fabriques i les primers fabricants a la Catalunya central’, in La industrialitzacio i el desenvolupament economic d’Espanya, II (Barcelona, 1999), pp. 1038–57; and A. Sanchez, ‘Les berguedanes i les primeres maquines de filar’, in J. Maluquer de Motes i Bernet, Tecnics i Tecnologia en el Desenvolupament de la Catalunya Contempomnia (Barcelona, 2000), pp. 161–75.