Título: Protoindústria i acumulació originària de capital (Alcoi, 1430-1823)
Autor/es: Torró Gil, Lluís
Resumen: This article reproduces without any significant alteration the conclusions of my PhD thesis (Proto-industry and original accumulation of capital in the Valencian town of Alcoi, 1430-1823). The thesis is about the origins of the industrialization process in the textile town of Alcoi and adjacent districts between the pointed out dates, paying attention to the evolution of the population, agricultural production, taxation, and, finally, manufacturing activity centered on the cloth production. The study, besides the reconstruction of a series of wool cloths production between 1569 and 1827, examines the role of guilds in the evolution of the cloth manufacture from the Middle Ages to the beginning of mechanization. The case of Alcoi is particularly significant for three reasons: (1) was the main center of production of woolen fabrics in Spain, probably between c. 1750-1830; (2) gave rise to a unique process of industrialization that can provide many lights in the understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate and / or hinder Spanish industrialization; and (3) some of its features (such as the active participation of guilds in the mechanization process) make it a outstanding case even internationally because it can become the testing ground on a number of assumptions about this issue and some others that are discussed in international forums dealing with them.
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