Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:27:28.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The city as a business: gas and business in the Spanish region of Galicia, 1850–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2012

ALBERTE MARTÍNEZ LÓPEZ  and
JESÚS MIRÁS-ARAUJO
ALBERTE MARTÍNEZ LÓPEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics, University of A Coruña.
JESÚS MIRÁS-ARAUJO
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics, University of A Coruña.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The history of town gas is unique in the development of public services in urban areas. Indeed, gas was the subject of the first network infrastructure set up in cities. In Spain, its history is discontinuous because the networks were dismantled in the 1940s and 1950s. The purpose of this paper is to retrace the steps of the development of the gas network in a region where the Spanish gas companies took the form of early modern businesses. They contributed significantly to the dynamism of local financial markets, both in terms of enterprise configuration, technology dissemination and innovative management. However, the development of the gas industry remained subject to local conditions of supply and demand, to conflicts with local government and suffered from competition from electricity.

La ville comme affaire commerciale: gaz et compagnies dans une région espagnole, la galice, 1850–1936

L'histoire du gaz de ville correspond à un cas unique dans le développement des services publics en milieu urbain. En effet, le gaz a fait l'objet de la première infrastructure en réseau mise place dans des villes. En Espagne, son histoire est discontinue car les réseaux ont été démantelés dans les années 1940 et 1950. Le but de l'article est de retracer les étapes du développement du réseau gazier dans une région espagnole où les compagnies du gaz ont pris précocement la forme d'entreprises modernes. Elles contribuèrent de façon significative au dynamisme des marchés financiers locaux, à la fois en termes de configuration d'entreprise, de diffusion technologique et de gestion innovante. Cependant, le développement de l'industrie gazière resta soumis aux conditions locales de l'offre et de la demande, aux relations conflictuelles avec des administrations locales et souffrit de la concurrence de l'électricité.

Die stadt als unternehmen. gas und unternehmen in einer spanischen region: galizien 1850–1936

Die Gasversorgung stellt einen einzigartigen Fall öffentlicher Dienstleistungen dar, da sie das erste infrastrukturelle städtische Netzwerk bildet, das in Städten eingerichtet wurde. In Spanien brach diese Entwicklung ab, als in den 1940er und 50er Jahren die Netzwerke aufgelöst wurden. Dieser Beitrag setzt sich zum Ziel, die Entwicklung der Gasversorgung in einer spanischen Region nachzuzeichnen, in der die Gasgesellschaften eines der ersten Beispiele für moderne Unternehmen darstellten. Auf den Gebieten der Unternehmensstrukturierung, der technologischen Diffusion, des innovativen Managements und der Dynamisierung örtlicher Kapitalmärkte leisteten sie bemerkenswerte Beiträge. Die Entwicklung der Gasindustrie wurde jedoch auch durch die lokalen Angebots- und Nachfragebedingungen, die zwiespältigen Beziehungen zur Lokalverwaltung und die zunehmende Konkurrenz der Elektrizitätsbetriebe bestimmt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , May 2012 , pp. 125 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ENDNOTES

1 C. J. Castaneda, Invisible fuel: manufactured and natural gas in America, 1800–2000 (New York, 1999), xvii.

2 The first company was founded during 1812 in London and, in the following years, gas supplies were installed in all major towns and in most small city centres. See Falkus, M. E., ‘The early development of the Britain gas industry, 1750–1815’, Economic History Review 35, 2 (1982), 217–34Google Scholar, here 217; Robinson, T., ‘The revealed preference of regulatory menus: evidence from the pre-nationalisation British gas industry’, International Review of Applied Economics 20, 2 (2006), 213–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 214.

3 Falkus, M. E., ‘The British gas industry before 1850’, Economic History Review 20, 3 (1967), 494–508CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 494.

4 O. Hyldtoft, ‘Making gas: the establishment of the Nordic gas systems, 1800–1870’, in A. Kaijser and M. Hedin eds., Nordic energy systems: historical perspectives and current issues (Canton, 1995), 77.

5 The first gas street lights were installed in Paris in 1816; Chatzis, K. and Coutard, O., ‘Water and gas: early developments in the utility networks of Paris’, Journal of Urban Technology 12 (2005), 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The situation was similar in the United States, where manufactured gas was installed in Baltimore during the same year. The use of gas underwent outstanding growth particularly in the 1840s and 1850s; see M. H. Rose, Cities of light and heat. Domesticating gas and electricity in urban America (University Park, PA, 1995), 21; and C. Castaneda, ‘Manufactured and natural gas industry’, in R. Whaples ed., EH.Net Encyclopedia, February 2010, http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/castaneda.gas.industry.us

6 Arroyo, M., ‘Gas en todos los pisos. El largo proceso hacia la generalización del consumo doméstico del gas’, Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales 146, 135 (2003)Google Scholar, http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn/sn-146(135).htm

7 C. Ward, A history of the Hull gas supply industry (Hull, 1988), 7.

8 Matthews, D., ‘Laissez-faire and the London gas industry in the nineteenth century. Another look’, Economic History Review 39, 2 (1986), 244–63Google Scholar, here 246; J. Foreman-Peck and R. Millward, Public and private ownership of British industry, 1820–1990 (Oxford, 1994), 130.

9 Wilson, J. F., ‘Ownership, management and strategy in early north-west gas companies, 1815–1830’, Business History 33, 2 (1991), 203–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Manners, G., ‘Recent changes in the British gas industry’, Transactions and Papers of the Institute of British Geographers 26 (1959), 153–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 153.

11 Castaneda, Invisible fuel, xvii.

12 M. Arroyo, ‘Technical networks and urban territory: a survey of the literature in Spain’, in T. J. Misa and M. Hard eds., The urban machine: recent literature on European Cities in the 20th century (2003), 5, http://www.tc.umn.edu/~tmisa/toe20/urban-machine/complete-pwd.pdf

13 Goodall, F., ‘Appliance trading activities of British gas utilities, 1875–1935’, Economic History Review 46, 3 (1993), 543–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 553.

14 Galicia is situated in north-west Spain. It was an agrarian region with rugged relief and Atlantic weather with most of its population spread out living in very small towns in the countryside. Most of its gross domestic product (GDP) came from agriculture, livestock and fishing, with a low level of industrialisation and urbanisation. There was a high stream of migration towards Argentina and Cuba.

15 Peripheral regions are those with a lower level of economic development (income per capita, industrialisation and urbanisation) and a dependency on capital and technology from the core regions.

16 A. Kahn, The economics of regulation: principles and institutions (Boston, 1988); Millward, R., ‘European governments and the infrastructure industries, c. 1840–1914’, European Review of Economic History 8, 1 (2004), 3–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Sing, M., ‘Are combination gas and electric utilities multiproduct natural monopolies?’, Review of Economics and Statistics 69, 3 (1987), 392–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Millward, R., ‘The market behaviour of local utilities in pre-World War I Britain: the case of gas’, Economic History Review 44, 1 (1991), 102–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 C. Winston and S. Peltzman, Deregulation of network industries (Washington, DC, 2000); Kwoka, J. E., ‘The role of competition in natural monopoly: costs, public ownership, and regulation’, Review of Industrial Organization 29, 1–2 (2006), 127–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar; P. L. Joskow, ‘Regulation of natural monopolies’, in A. M. Polinsky and S. Shavell eds., Handbook of law and economics (London, 2007), 1227–48.

20 Goodall, ‘Appliance trading activities’.

21 Arroyo, ‘Gas en todos los pisos’.

22 J.-P. Williot and S. Paquier, ‘Stratégies entrepreneuriales et évolution des marchés des années 1840 aux années 1930’, in S. Paquier and J.-P. Williot eds., L'industrie du gaz en Europe aux XIX eet XX esiècles. L'innovation entre marchés privés et collectivités publiques (Brussels, 2005), 53–64.

23 T. I. Williams, A history of the British gas industry (New York, 1981).

24 J.-P. Williot, ‘La diffusion de la technologie gazière française dans le bassin méditerranéen: de la construction des usines à gaz à la mise en place des réseaux de gaz naturel (années 1840–1980)’, in M. Merger ed., Transferts de technologies en Méditerranée (Paris, 2006), 207–19.

25 Hyldtoft, ‘Making gas’.

26 A. Giuntini, ‘Il gas in Italia fra industria e servizio urbano dall'avvento dell'elettricità alla scoperta del metano’, in G. Bigatti, A. Giuntini, A. Mantegazza and C. Rotondi eds., L'acqua e il gas in Italia. La storia dei servizi a rete, delle aziende pubbliche e della Federgasacqua (Milan, 1997), 165–97.

27 The socio-economic variables (industrial development and income level) seemed to have a decisive role, as can be seen in the case of Italy where gas began to spread throughout the north, even in interior cities, which were more developed and close to France. See Giuntini, ‘Il gas in Italia’, 170–1.

28 Sudrià, C., ‘Notas sobre la implantación y el desarrollo de la industria del gas en España, 1843–1901’, Revista de Historia Económica 1, 2 (1983), 97–118CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Falkus, ‘The British gas industry’.

30 In France virtually all cities with over 8,000 people had this service; see J. P. Williot, ‘De la naissance des compagnies à la constitution des groupes gaziers en France (années 1820–1930)’, in Paquier and Williot, L'industrie du gaz en Europe, 147–79.

31 Libro de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de A Coruña, 29/11/1855, 145.

32 Archivo de la Fundación Gas Natural, caja 70, Informe de Prouvat de Guéry, Barcelona, 7/9/1883.

33 Libro de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de Vigo, 24/8/1884, 115.

34 Archivo Histórico de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (hereafter AHUSC), Fondo Municipal, Libro 1386, Alumbrado público, 1871–1881, f. 151r.

35 C. O'Sullivan, The gasmakers. Historical perspectives on the Irish gas industry (Dublin, 1987), 33.

36 M. W. H. Peebles, Evolution of the gas industry (London, 1980), 115.

37 N. L. Madureira, A historia da energia: Portugal 1890–1980 (Lisbon, 2005), 176.

38 The lack of business archival records hampers investigation of the characteristics of these firms in any depth.

39 Sociedad para el alumbrado de gas de la ciudad de La Coruña, Lyon 1853.

40 Archivo General de Protocolos de A Coruña, Escribano Manuel de Agra, Protocolo n° 9362, año 1854, ff. 67–80. This implementation in A Coruña benefited from the presence of a large French colony of merchants and artisans in the city from the mid-eighteenth century onwards. The Lyon firm was small and formed by merchants, probably silk manufacturers; J. M. Giraud, Gaz et électricité à Lyon (1820–1946), des origines à la nationalisation (Lyon, 1992), doctoral thesis. It was established as a limited partnership, becoming a public limited company in the early 1880s, relatively late when compared with other gas companies in Lyon. The management was unstable during the early decades (as in Santiago), but it consolidated in the 1880s when this task was allocated to François Saunier, an engineer who also held French vice consul in A Coruña. The company also started employing Spanish technical staff (engineers), in response to the rise of Spanish nationalism. Since the late nineteenth century, the firm came to depend on a Lyonnais powerful business group, the Société de Gaz et Electricité du Sudest.

41 Libro de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de Vigo, 9/10/1882.

42 AHUSC, Fondo Municipal, Libro 1386, Alumbrado público, 1871–1881, f. 1r.

43 Archivo de la Fundación Gas Natural, caja 115, convenio Catalana-General de España, 1/12/1883.

44 Biblioteca General de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, fondo Espino, leg. Fábrica de gas de Santiago.

45 Arroyo, M., ‘Actitudes empresariales y estructura industrial. El gas de Málaga, 1854–1929’, Scripta Nova. Revista Electrónica de Geografía y Ciencias Sociales X, 215 (2006)Google Scholar, http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn/sn-215.htm

46 Fernandez, A., ‘Cambio tecnológico y transformaciones empresariales: gas y electricidad en Bilbao y en Burdeos (ca. 1880–ca. 1920)’, Historia Contemporánea 25 (2001), 319–42Google Scholar; Williot, ‘De la naissance des compagnies’, 147–79.

47 Archivo Municipal de A Coruña (hereafter AMC), caja 2759, expte. 1853; AHUSC, Fondo Municipal, Libro 1386, Alumbrado público, 1871–1881, ff. 49r–65bisv; Archivo de la Fundación Gas Natural, Caja 115, Dictamen sobre la rescisión del contrato, 9/10/1890; Libro de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de Vigo, 22/11/1882.

48 For example, the duration of the concession was 25 years in A Coruña and 45 years in Santiago de Compostela.

49 Arroyo, ‘Actitudes empresariales’.

50 Libros de Sesiones de los Ayuntamientos de A Coruña, Santiago, Ferrol y Vigo; AMC, caja 2761, expte. 4/1869; AHUSC, Fondo Municipal, Libro 1386; Alumbrado público, ff. 169r–366r; Archivo de la Fundación Gas Natural, caja 115, Proyecto municipal de reforma del contrato, 11/5/1889.

51 For instance, the death of Luis Laty, the president of the company in A Coruña; see Libro de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de A Coruña, 9/10/1855, 126.

52 There were disagreements on the length of new concessions, the minimum number of annual lighting hours, prices and quality of service. Some of these conflicts lasted several years.

53 In general, the contract specifications used to consider some kind of penalty for such behaviour, although the casuistry was very heterogeneous.

54 In Ferrol it was 42 per cent of the turnover.

55 In Ferrol municipal debts only accounted for 3.4 per cent of municipal turnover (1884–1890), well below the Councils of A. Coruña (47.1 per cent for 1868–1871) and Santiago (19 per cent for 1875–1878). In Vigo municipal arrears were small.

56 Peebles, Evolution of the gas industry, 23.

57 Shiman, D. R., ‘Explaining the collapse of the British electrical supply industry in the 1880s: gas versus electric lighting prices’, Business and Economic History 22, 1 (1993), 318–27Google Scholar.

58 Foreman-Peck and Millward, Public and private ownership, 202.

59 P. W. MacAvoy, The natural gas market: sixty years of regulation and deregulation (New Haven, 2001), 10.

60 The most important developments were the Aüer incandescent gas mantle (1882), the Welsbach lamp, the electricity applied to stoking machinery, the use of the inclined retorts and of new combustibles (coke), and the so-called ‘water gas’, which was produced by passing steam through hot coke, etc. See Matthews, D., ‘The technical transformation of the late nineteenth-century gas industry’, Journal of Economic History 47, 4 (1987), 967–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

61 M. H. Rose, ‘Urban gas and electric systems and social change, 1900–1940’, in J. A. Tarr and G. Dupuy eds., Technology and the rise of the networked city in Europe and America (Philadelphia, 1988), 229–45; Wilson, ‘Ownership, management and strategy’.

62 Castaneda, Invisible fuel.

63 Sudrià, C., ‘Atraso económico y resistencia a la innovación: el caso del gas natural en España’, Documents d'Análisi Geografica 5 (1984), 75–96Google Scholar.

64 Ibid., 88.

65 D. García de la Fuente, La historia del gas en Granada: del gas Lebon al gas natural (Seville, 1998).

66 Castaneda, Invisible fuel, 69.

67 That is, barely 1.6 per cent of Spanish production. In contrast, the population of Galicia in 1900 represented 10.64 per cent of all Spaniards, but in 1930 this had declined to 9.42 per cent. Sudrià, ‘Notas sobre la implantación’.

68 As inferred from documentation in municipal records.

69 AMC, Actas Municipales del Ayuntamiento de La Coruña, 1889.

70 AMC, Actas Municipales del Ayuntamiento de La Coruña, 2/4/1900, 101.

71 AMC, Expedientes y comunicaciones de órdenes de ejecución de obras y de encendido y apagado del alumbrado public, Alumbrado público, Unidad 2.763.

72 The Compañía Popular de Gas y Electricidad was founded in Gijón, and purchased other electricity companies in this northern Spanish city, such as the Electra Industrial de Gijón (1906), Compañía Eléctrica Peninsular, Fábrica de Electricidad de Illas and Compañía Popular de Avilés; see J. Santana, Asturias, una historia del gas de alumbrado (Oviedo, 1989), 206.

73 AHUSC, A.M. Alumbrado público, libro 1387.

74 M. Arroyo, El gas en Ferrol (1883–1898). Condiciones técnicas, iniciativas económicas e intereses sociales (Barcelona, 2006), 115.

75 Ayuntamiento del Ferrol, Expediente instruido para la rescisión del contrato de alumbrado público por gas otorgado en 10 de enero de 1882 por faltas de cumplimiento de la ‘Sociedad Catalana para el alumbrado por gas’ a las condiciones estipuladas (El Ferrol, 1898), 3, 17.

76 A. González García, El gas en Sevilla: 100 años de historia, 1846–1945 (Seville, 1981), 84.

77 D. García de la Fuente, Del gas del alumbrado al gas natural en Castellón de la Plana, 1870–1995 (Valencia, 1996), 98.

78 AMC, Actas Municipales del Ayuntamiento de La Coruña, 9/4/1880, 42.

79 AMC, Expedientes de contratación de servicio. Alumbrado público, Unidad 2.762 and 2.764, Ayuntamiento de La Coruña.

80 Falkus, M. E., ‘The development of municipal trading in the nineteenth century’, Business History 19, 3 (1977), 134–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; R. Millward, ‘The market behaviour’, 99.

81 P. Dogliani, ‘Il dibattito sulla municipalizzazione in Europa dall'inizio del novecento alla prima guerra mondiale’, in F. Berselli, F. Della Peruta and F. Varni eds., La municipalizzazione nell'area padana. Storia ed esperienze a confronto (Milan, 1998), 222–56.

82 The pioneering countries in the municipalisation of gas were Britain, Austria-Hungary and Italy, although its magnitude was relatively small, being more relevant in Germany, Scandinavian countries and Switzerland. See J. P. Williot and S. Paquier, ‘Origine et diffusion d'une technologie nouvelle au XIXe siècle’, in Paquier and Williot, L'industrie du gaz en Europe, 21–51.

83 J. Gascón, Municipalización de los servicios públicos (Madrid, 1904).

84 In 1900, A Coruña was the largest city of the region, with 43,971 inhabitants. It was mere nineteenth in the ranking of Spanish provincial capitals. Lugo, Ferrol, Santiago, Vigo and Pontevedra had approximately 20,000–25,000 inhabitants.

85 The most significant examples were the following: (a) Barcelona, a city where the position of the gas company was very solid, but the city council planned municipalisation in 1911. See M. Arroyo, La industria del gas en Barcelona (1841–1933). Innovación tecnológica, articulación del territorio y conflicto de intereses (Barcelona, 1996), 367; (b) Madrid, whose service was seized between 1917 and 1921. See Ma. C. Simón, El gas y los madrileños (Madrid, 1989); (c) Valencia, where the attempt of municipalisation in 1905 was not successful because of pressure from the central government; (d) special cases were San Sebastian, whose service was municipalised in 1889. Larrinaga, See C., ‘Los orígenes del gas en San Sebastián (1860–1871). El proceso administrativo’, Mundaiz 47 (1994), 97–118Google Scholar; or (e) Bilbao, where the factory and gas distribution service were municipalised in 1885, although in the early twentieth century, coinciding with a decline in gas consumption, the city council decided to ‘de-municipalise’ the factory. However, it could not be privatised, and for that reason a ‘mixed’ board of directors was created, responsible for the management of the service, applying private company methods. This set-up did not become effective until 1914, after lengthy disputes. See Fernandez, ‘Cambio tecnológico’.

86 AHUSC, Fondo Municipal, Libro 1387, Alumbrado público, ff. 529r–529v.

87 AHUSC, Fondo Municipal, Libro 2044, Alumbrado público, 1903, f. 3.

88 Libros de Sesiones del Ayuntamiento de Vigo (Vigo City Council Meetings).

89 Ibid., 21/3/1907, 52.

90 Ibid., 1/2/1906, 28; 7/9/1907, 171; 6/2/1909, 18.

91 Peebles, Evolution of the gas industry, 24.

92 M. Paradas, Fernández, ‘Empresas y servicio de alumbrado público por gas en España (1842–1935)’, TST. Transportes, Servicios y Telecomunicaciones 16 (2009), 108–31Google Scholar.

93 Sudrià, ‘Atraso económico y resistencia’, 88–9.

94 According to Arroyo, Barcelona was probably the only Spanish city that saw its gas network developed in a similar manner to how the networks of other European cities were built, because it had two major segments of consumption (lighting and the energy supply for industrial engines), as well as some local gas entrepreneurs who, in general, showed outstanding business acumen. See Arroyo, ‘Actitudes empresariales’.

95 García de la Fuente, Del gas del alumbrado, 139.

96 P. Fábregas, Gas Cádiz, 1845–1969 (Barcelona, 1989), 39–40.

97 Ministerio de Economía Nacional, Apuntes para el momento de la industria española de 1930. Coruña (Madrid, c. 1932), 413.

98 See the 1917 Statistical Yearbook for Spain; Anuario Estadístico de España (Madrid, 1917).

99 Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Resumen de las informaciones de los inspectores del trabajo acerca de las consecuencias sufridas por las industrias en España con motivo del actual estado de guerra (Madrid, 1914); Instituto de Reformas Sociales, Coste de la vida del obrero. Estadística de los precios de los artículos de primera necesidad en toda España, desde 1909 a 1915 (Madrid, 1916), 101.

100 Coal was a very important factor of cost for the gas industry. Millward, R. and Ward, R., ‘The costs of public and private gas enterprises in late 19th century Britain’, Oxford Economic Papers New Series 39, 4 (1987), 719–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In Galicia, its shortage forced the industry to obtain it from abroad via imports (mostly from Britain) or by coastal shipping from Asturias.

101 Fábricas Coruñesas de Gas y Electricidad, S.A. (hereafter FCGE), year 1920, Memoria leída en la Junta general de Accionistas celebrada el día 14 de marzo de 1921 (La Coruña, 1921).

102 Cooperativa Eléctrica Coruñesa, S.A., year 1919, Memoria (La Coruña, 1920), 17.

103 Peebles, Evolution of the gas industry, 24.

104 Goodall, ‘Appliance trading activities’, 553.

105 Sudrià, ‘Atraso económico y resistencia’, 88.

106 S. Coll and C. Sudrià, El carbón en España 1770–1961. Una historia económica (Madrid, 1987).

107 FCGE, year 1921, Memoria leída en la Junta general de Accionistas celebrada el día 14 de marzo de 1922 (La Coruña, 1922), 9.

108 Arroyo, La industria del gas, 366.

109 M. Hietala, Services and urbanization at the turn of the century. The diffusion of innovations (Helsinki, 1987), 223.

110 J. Mirás, Continuidad y cambio en la España urbana en el período de entreguerras. Análisis de una ciudad española (A Coruña, 2007), 140.

111 FCGE, year 1933, Memoria redactada por el Presidente de esta sociedad que presenta el Consejo de Gobierno a la Junta General de Accionistas que ha de celebrarse el día 26 de marzo de 1934 (La Coruña, 1934), 12.

112 Sudrià, ‘Atraso económico y resistencia’, 89.

113 Williot and Paquier, ‘Stratégies entrepreneuriales’.

114 Ministerio de Economía Nacional, Apuntes, 413.

115 FCGE, year 1935, Memoria redactada por el Presidente de esta sociedad que presenta el Consejo de Gobierno a la Junta General de Accionistas que ha de celebrarse el día 30 de marzo de 1936 (La Coruña, 1936), 10.

116 Sociedad General Gallega de Electricidad, S.A., Memoria presentada por el Consejo de Administración a la Junta General de Accionistas. Ejercicio de 1935 (La Coruña).