The Impact of Protectionism on 19th Century Spain: A Basque Perspective

Text 9 Librecambism and protectionism

This text Is a transcription of a speech given by the speaker Federico Etxebarria, a Basque (). Its aim is to complain about a possible trade treaty between Spain And Germany, which will allowed German iron to be sold in the country. It is a First level text dated on the late 19^th century, in 1893.

This Speech was given during the period of Restoration System, implied after the Intention, in 1874, of creating a republic in the country. The country was at This period run by the 1876 Constitution and where the two dynastic parties, The conservatives of Cánovas and the liberals of Sagasta took it in terms to Govern. Rigging elections enable this situation. Economicwise, Spain was not Very developed. Agriculture remained being the most important sector in the Country while industrialization had very little presence limited to Catalonia And the Basque Country. The sooner worked with textile while the later did it With iron, both extracting and manufacturing it. The protectionism enables Those few Spanish industries to maintain their selling in the country, as their Production would never be able to compete with foreigners. As part of the Protectionist measures there was a tax system which forced foreigners to pay an Amount of money if they wanted to sell their products in the country leading to An increase of the prizes of those. The internal market therefore was in some Way reserved for the Spanish products, due to them being cheaper than those That had to pay the taxes for being from abroad. However, the assurance of Selling the production in the country led to a lack of innovation, as there Wasn’t any need to compete with the products coming from other parts of Europe. Economic backwardness was a clear consequence of the situation.

Spain Wanted to make a trade treaty with Germany, which would allow German iron to be Sold in the country without paying the obligatory taxes of foreign products. Consequently, the iron coming from Germany would then have the same prize of The Spanish one but always with a better quality. The iron of the country was Not able no improve let alone to compete with a country as developed as Germany. The affected sector was obviously the iron one and so the most hit Region was the Basque Country, especially Biscay. There, workers wanted the Foreign iron to pay taxes maintaining the protectionism. The speech whose Transcription is the text given was one of the attempts to maintain the Mentioned measures.

The Treaty was never in force, and products from abroad continued having to pay Taxes to be sold in Spanish territory. Nevertheless this was not as far Beneficial for the industries of the country. The rivalry that was making Products in other countries improve industrywise didn’t reach Spain in that Period, so the lack of innovation persisted and so did the economic Backwardness.