Labour market transformation and inequality were fundamental aspects in the transition to the industrialisation. This article reconstructs the Barcelona’s area economic structure across the 18th and 19th centuries through the Marriage Licences of the Barcelona’s Cathedral. These documents registered a proportional tax paid by the spouses’ according to their occupational and social status. Since 1780, an important decrease in the primary sector and an increase in the secondary and tertiary sectors are observed. Inequality between economic sectors rose and also within the secondary sector (textile) due to the proletarianization of the workers. Conversely, there was not an increase in inequality in the primary sector while it decreased in the tertiary sector.
