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Big Business and the Failure of Right-Wing Catalan Nationalism, 1901–1923

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Joseph Harrison
Joseph Harrison
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

The rise of modern Catalan nationalist sentiments dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In essence, these sentiments reflected a growing political, intellectual and, to a lesser extent economic resentment within the region of Catalonia against the Restoration regime which was imposed upon Spain in 1875. The breakthrough of Catalan nationalism, or regionalism as it is sometimes called, to become a significant force in Spanish politics followed the victory of four Catalanist candidates in the elections to the Cortes of 1901. Shortly afterwards the groups responsible for that electoral success came together to establish what was, with the possible exception of the Socialists (P.S.O.E.), the first modern political party of Spain, the Lliga Regionalista. Significantly, the foundation of the Lliga marked a turning point in the nature of Catalan nationalism, or at least its dominant strain. Of the four candidates elected in 1901, all for Barcelona seats, three represented economic interests. Indeed, much more than that, they were, or had been, presidents of three of the most powerful big business organisations of the region.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 901 - 918
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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31 There is a good deal of literature on the subject of a free port for Barcelona, e.g. Graell, M., Las zonas neutrales: su importancia para Barcelona (Barcelona, 1914); El Trabajo National, 15 Oct. 1914, 15 Nov. 1914, 1 Dec. 1914, 1 Jan. 1915; Boletín de la Cámara de Comercio y Navegatión de Barcelona, Jan. 1915; Economie i Finances, Feb. 1918.Google Scholar

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47 Average food prices in Barcelona rose from 99.8 in 1914, to 101.8 in 1915, 108.1 in 1916 and 121.2 in 1917 (Feb. 1914 = 100) according to the Institutode Reformas Sociales, Informas de los inspectores del trabajo sobre la influencia de la gverra europea en las industries españolas (Madrid, 1918), I, 146.Google Scholar

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53 Producción: Publicatión de la Federación Patroñal de Cataluna, Feb. 1922.

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57 The encroachment of the gunmen into the activities of the C.N.T. is brilliantly portrayed in the ‘confessions’ of the syndicalist leader Angel Pestafia, Lo que aprendí en la vida (Madrid, n.d.) pp. 75ff.Google ScholarSee also Brenan, Gerald, The Spanish Labyrinth, An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War (2nd edn, Cambridge, 1950), pp. 68–74.Google Scholar

58 In May 1921 all the economic societies of Barcelona paid homage to Martínez Anido. Lavish in his praise was Cussó, the president of the Fomento del Trabajo National, who addressed Martinez Anido thus: ‘A firm and energetic man was needed…and this señor Martinez Anido has been’ (El Trabajo National, May 1921).

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