DISTRIBUTION OF ENGLISH TEXTILES IN THE
SPANISH MARKET AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
18
TH
CENTURY*
NADIA FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO ECHEVARRI
´
A
Universidad Auto
´
noma de Madrid
a
EMILIANO FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO FERNA
´
NDEZ
Universidad del Paı
´
s Vasco
b
ABSTRACT
This article examines the marketing and distribution of foreign fabric,
predominantly English, in the northern sub-plateau of Spain at the begin-
ning of the 18
th
century using information from a fiscal source. The official
tax record used in this study was a specific and special tax levied on cloth
imported from countries with which Spain was at war. The details of this
tax shed more light on a hotly debated topic with respect to transport and
*
Received 26 June 2012. Accepted 9 April 2013. This work was co-financed by MICINN HAR
2008-04978/His and HAR 2012-35965/His and the Basque Government (Gobierno Vasco/Eusko
Jaurlaritza, Grupo de Investigacio
´
n consolidado IT337-10). A preliminary version was presented at
the Pasold Research Fund and Chord Joint Conference (Session: Distribution networks for textiles
and dress, c. 1700-1945) at the University of Wolverhampton in September 2010. The authors are
grateful to all the participants for their suggestions and comments. They would also like to thank
Fernando Esteve, Ernesto Lo
´
pez Losa, Santiago Lo
´
pez, Patricio Sa
´
iz and Philipp Sykas as well as
the referees of this journal. Any errors remaining in the text are our responsibility.
a
Senior Lecturer, Universidad Auto
´
noma de Madrid, Dpto. Ana
´
lisis Econo
´
mico: Teorı
´
a Ec. e
Historia Ec., Facultad de CC.EE. y EE. — Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain. Telephone: 134 914972688.
nadia.pinedo@uam.es
b
Full Professor, Universidad del Paı
´
s Vasco, Dpto. Historia e Instituciones Econo
´
micas,
Facultad de CC.EE. y EE, Lehendakari Aguirre, 83, 48015 Bilbao, Spain. Telephone: 134 946013724.
emiliano.fernandezdepinedo@ehu.es
Revista de Historia E cono
´
mica, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economi c His tory
Vol. 31, No. 2: 253-284. doi:10.1017/S0212610913000116 & Instituto Figuerola, Universi dad Carl os I II de Madrid, 2013.
253
networks in modern Spain and make it possible to analyze and quantify the
physical volume as well as the value and the destination of textiles.
Keywords: taxation, distribution, english textile, trading enterprise,
Spain, 17
th
century
JEL Code: N7, L81, L67, R12
RESUMEN
En este trabajo se analiza la comercializacio
´
n y distribucio
´
n de tejidos
extranjeros en la sub-meseta norte de Espan
˜
a a comienzos del setecientos
a trave
´
s de una fuente fiscal que nos permite matizar ciertos aspectos rela-
cionados con la demanda de textiles. La fuente utilizada en este trabajo es un
impuesto que se cobraba sobre los textiles importados en tiempos de guerra y
que recoge quien enviaba la mercancı
´
a, el receptor de la misma, el trans-
portista, el tipo de tejido, su valor fiscal, la cantidad ası
´
como el impuesto
extraordinario pagado que iba a la tesorerı
´
a real. Los resultados de este
estudio permiten analizar en profundidad por lo tanto las redes de dis-
tribucio
´
n y el tipo de tejidos ingleses que se demandaban.
Palabras Clave: fiscalidad, tejidos ingleses, transporte, arrierı
´
a, espan
˜
a,
siglo XVIII
1. INTRODUCTION
Despite the significant body of literature, which has accumulated on the
topic of the consumption of textiles in modern times and on the relationship
between commercialization and trust, economic historians still have some gaps
to fill regarding consumption and distribution patterns in the 18
th
century. The
current work attempts to contribute to a new approach to the topic.
Our case study delves deeper into the main features of the marketing of
manufactured textile products and draws some key conclusions in an
attempt to identify trends in market distribution. In a first attempt at filling
the gap, we analyze the source in order to test the validity of the data used in
this article. Our primary sources of data are the records found in the Archivo
General de Simancas (Spain) and correspond to a fiscal source that calculates
the tax payable on foreign textiles when imported into Spain. The documents
to carry out this study provide not only qualitative but, more importantly,
quantitative information, which allows us to establish statistically the type of
cloth, mostly from England, imported mainly through the Bilbao port, the
specific geographical location of the re-sales (Madrid, capitals of provinces
NADIA FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO AND EMILIANO FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO
254 Revista de Historia Econo
´
mica, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economic History
and rural areas) and the transporters and their possible kinship, linguistic
and/or geographical connections between sellers and buyers.
The paper is organized around two objectives. The first is to determine
the evolution and origin of English fabric consumption patterns during the
18
th
century. According to the source, new draperies were not the only ones
demanded in early 18
th
century Castile. The data available indicate that the
fabric import flow to Castile was overwhelmingly centered on mid-quality cloth.
The second objective is to identify the factors that affected distribution and
commercialization modes in modern times. The characteristics and extension
of the Castilian market appear to be much more complex than previously
recognized in certain historiographical sectors. According to them, the Castilian
economic crisis provoked the macrocephaly of Madrid, concentrating admin-
istrative activities and the local nobility and, therefore, a greater proportion
of consumption, in detriment to other urban centers (Torras and Yun 2003,
pp. 27-28). However, the capitals of provinces (provincial towns), according to
Ringrose, did not appear to affect the model of transport demand — «these
provincial towns did not greatly influence the over-all pattern of demand
for transport»
1
. While it is true that Madrid was an important centre of
consumption, we were able to ascertain that other towns also absorbed large
quantities of manufactured goods, including imported and domestic textiles. In
light of these findings, we have to consider the relative geographic dispersion of
this demand as one of the characteristics of 18
th
-century Castile.
We must point out that merchandise of great value, but not weighing very
much, has been the object of particular attention in recent years, as seen in
the works of Florence Fontaine, Jan de Vries, Jaume Torras and Bartolome
´
Yun or Ramos among others (Muset i Pons 1997; Fontaine 1999, 2008;
Torras and Yun 2003; Denzel et al. 2011; Ramos 2010). A long-standing
presumption in this literature has been that the marketing of certain man-
ufactured products appears to be frequently linked to the development of
socio-economic networks based on local connections of trust such as family,
religion, geography or language and security, striving at the same time for
low freight and intermediation costs (Hamilton 1947; Ringrose 1970; Madrazo
1981; Baker and Gerhold 1993; Greif 1994; Alexander and Akehurst 1998;
Botticini and Eckstein 2007; Guiso et al. 2008; Barro and McClearly 2006;
Lo
´
pez Losa 2013). Having examined the documentation, there is no evidence
for a network based on kinship or geography linking the importer to the
carrier and the consignee of the merchandise. Apparently, the basis of this
network structure was trust (among others, Coleman 1990; Cox 2004;
Fukuyama 1995; Gambetta 1988; Granovetter 1973; Greif 1993) and efficiency.
Trust has recently been studied from the standpoint of economic
sociology, behavioral economics, organization theory and games theory
1
Ringrose (1970, pp. 8, 26). A reinterpretation of the role played by Madrid and the periphery
in Grafe (2012, Ch. 8).
DISTRIBUTION OF ENGLISH TEXTILES IN THE SPANISH MARKET
Revista de Historia Econo
´
mica, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economic History
255
(Dasgupta 2000, p. 49). As Coleman suggested, trust — defined as credibility,
integrity, loyalty, knowledge and efficiency — is generated by three mechan-
isms: interpersonal contact, reputation or institutional context (Coleman 1990;
Dasgupta 2009). In this sample, each carrier’s behavior was recorded after
each transaction, so potential future employers–customers would know that
carrier’s history and therefore reputation and so could hire them or not. As
shown by game theory, trust arises from the indefinite repetition of exchanges
between the same parties, or is an output of a network belonging to the same
social or religious milieu. Avner Greif has shown that networks of Jewish,
Christian or Arab merchants allowed trade through the Mediterranean in the
absence of a mechanism for legal enforcement of contracts (Greif 1993, 2006;
Edwards and Ogilvie 2012, pp. 421-444). In our case study, however, instead of
a distribution network focused on very specific communities of individuals
or Diaspora merchants, we have a network within a country whose roots are
in the Middle Ages, although its economic mechanisms are not archaic.
Obviously, the economic infrastructure had to be based on a spontaneous
network of trust, but not necessarily by definition in confidence based on
family, local or linguistic ties
2
.
If there are three sources of trust — family, interests, or norms and values
that generate trustworthiness and predictability — what we observe in this
research is the last one (Adler 2001, p. 218). Neither language nor kinship nor
the closeness of neighborhoods seems to have been an influence, in this case
study, in choosing the carrier. Commitment between carriers and other agents
in the Castilian market was generated year by year within a solid network
based on honest behavior and satisfactory work, but was not linked, as shown
in the following pages, with other factors such as family or language. These
mechanisms reinforce effectiveness. As will be shown, there did not even
appear to be ties of these characteristics between the dispenser (from Bilbao
or Vitoria) and receiver (any merchant or shopkeeper from a Castilian town).
The choice was based on price, quality of service and security of payment; that
is, purely economic considerations. Undoubtedly, this work provides new
perspectives in understanding how pre-industrial distribution and consump-
tion networks conducted their business in southern Europe.
2. TEXTILE DEMAND AND THE ROLE OF THE PORT OF BILBAO AS
A CENTER OF DISTRIBUTION
2.2. Imports of British fabrics
Throughout the 17
th
century, England and Holland consolidated the use
of «new draperies» made of woollen cloth, sometimes with a mixture of
2
Axelrod (1984), Lee (2011, p. 9). On family and market transactions, see Ben-Porath (1980,
p. 2 and 5) and also Valdaliso and Lo
´
pez (2006).
NADIA FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO AND EMILIANO FERNA
´
NDEZ-DE-PINEDO
256 Revista de Historia Econo
´
mica, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economic History
lightweight fibers, of average quality, with new designs, attractive and
cheaper, using indigenous raw materials in the case of England and materials
brought in from nearby in the case of Holland (Coleman 1969, pp. 417-429;
Wee, van der 2002, pp. 452-461). In the second half of that century, Holland
experienced a regeneration of the market for luxury cloth, which included
the famous lakens made with Spanish merino wool. These changes in the
types of cloth used had a significant influence on Spanish artisan textiles and
on the demand for Castilian cloth. From the beginning of the 17
th
century,
the Castilian Courts and well-documented reformers
3
pointed out that the
competition resulting from cheap imported textiles of average quality was, in
effect, eliminating Castilian and Andalusian products of the same quality
(cloth with a thread count of between eighteen, dieciochenos and twenty,
veintedosenos
4
) from the domestic market
5
.
This process continued until Castilian and Andalusian (from Co
´
rdoba, Los
Pedroches, U
´
beda, Baeza) textiles of lower and average quality almost dis-
appeared, or severely declined in the case of Segovia, having been replaced by
textiles closer to the new draperies. England, Holland and France competed to
supply textiles to the Castilian market; however, their products and interests
were marked by certain nuances. All of them were interested in maintaining a
positive trade balance in order to obtain American silver or to facilitate trade
with the Far East. Holland was able to provide linen, silk and wool textiles of
generally very good quality. Both southern Spain and the West Indies were
major consumers of linen, and, to a much lesser degree, of quality wool cloths.
Only a very small proportion of the Spanish nobility was able to acquire Dutch
lakens. For the United Provinces, Spain and the West Indies were major mar-
kets for their linen textiles. France also provided this type of textile and, when
engaged in trade or contraband with Spain or its possessions, targeted the
Seville-Cadiz-West Indies market. French and Dutch rivalry centered around
linen, and to a lesser degree, silk textiles. England, however, only competed
with cheaper woollen textiles of average quality, very little in demand in India,
having Castile as their main market due to weather conditions
6
.
3
Memorial in Felipe IV times, reproduced in Larruga (1793, p. 132). Among arbitristas
(reformers) especially Damia
´
n de Olivares «Respuesta de Damian de Olivares a un papel que ha
salido sin autor, que se intitula advertencias para la prohibicio
´
n de las mercaderias estrangeras, que
dize da causas porque no de deuen prohibir por ley absoluta, y pregon escandaloso. Dirigida al
Excelentisimo Sen
˜
or Conde de Oliuares», Madrid 20
th
of February 1622 (B.N., R-37.064). Vilar
(1991, pp. 99-166).
4
eno indicates the count of yarns (2.600) employed for the warp.
5
The Spanish tax of 1680 enables us to define the relative quality of English and Castilian
textiles. The Alconcher cloths, black or white, between 14 and 15 rs./varas, the perennial up to
12 rs./vara, the Dutch cloths (probably lakens) and English (probably broadcloths) at 44 rs./vara. The
Segovia shrunken cloths at 25 rs./vara, the Segovian 20eno cloth around 24 rs./vara, the black 20eno
at 30 rs./vara, the best 22eno at 46 rs./vara and the best 24eno at 50 rs./vara.
6
See Fisher (1950, p. 30). Davis (1954, pp. 150-163) pointed out that «exports are still
dominated, overwhelmingly, by woolen cloths (L 2,772 th. out of L 2,815 th. textile exports; almost
three-quarters of all exports to Europe)».
DISTRIBUTION OF ENGLISH TEXTILES IN THE SPANISH MARKET
Revista de Historia Econo
´
mica, Journal of lberian and Latin American Economic History
257
