Prensa económica del siglo XVIII: el Almanak Mercantil o Guía de Comerciantes (1795-1808)

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La novedad de lo cotidiano. La Cataluña del siglo XVIII vista por viajeros extranjeros

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Bienestar y pobreza. El impacto del sistema de herencia castellano en Cádiz, el «Emporio del Orbe» (1700-1810)

La continuidad de las grandes casas mercantiles establecidas en la Andalucía occidental durante el siglo XVIII se vio obstaculizada no sólo por la crisis política y económica finisecular, sino también por un factor estructural hasta ahora poco analizado en la historia económica: el sistema hereditario castellano. La legislación y las prácticas hereditarias castellanas protegieron la transmisión intergeneracional de los patrimonios familiares y por ello fomentaron el bienestar de las familias. El reparto igualitario castellano, sin embargo, tuvo también el resultado de propiciar la disgregación de importantes patrimonios, difícultando la pervivencia de numerosas empresas mercantiles de carácter familiar. El presente trabajo representa una aproximación a este tema, estudiando algunos de los principales efectos que tuvo el sistema hereditario castellano en Cádiz, y algunos de los frecuentes mecanismos utilizados por la élite mercantil gaditana para transmitir patrimonios más concentrados en el siglo XVIII, época en la que la ciudad andaluza tuvo el monopolio del comercio legal entre España y sus posesiones en América.The continuity of big mercantile houses established in Western Andalusia during the eighteenth century was jeopardized not only due to the political and economic crisis oí the end of the century, but also due to anodier source of instability that has received litde attention in economic hístory: the equalitarian principies of the Castilian hereditary systetn, whose aim was to safeguard the transmission of family wealth between generations. Castilian hereditary law and customs promoted family well-being, but the equalitarian división of patritnonies also had the result of forcing the dispersión of fortunes, therefore hindering the continuity of numerous tnercantile family firms. This article studies the effects of the Castilian hereditary system in Cádiz during the eighteen century, when the Andalusian city held the legal monopoly of trade between Spain and its American possessions. The study also analyzes some of the mechanisms that the Cádiz mercantile elites used in order to bequeath more concentrated patrimonies.Publicad

Mario CERUTTI, María del Carmen HERNÁNDEZ y Carlos MARICHAL (coords.), Grandes empresas y grupos empresariales en México en el siglo xx, México D.F., Plaza y Valdés, 2010,282 pp.

La historia empresaria

Laboratorios Andrómaco: Origins of the First Subsidiary of a Spanish Pharmaceutical Multinational in the United States (1928–1946)

Laboratorios Andrómaco was a Spanish pharmaceutical company that opened a commercial subsidiary in the United States in the early months of 1929. It was located right in the heart of Manhattan, at 11 West 47th Street, in front of the New York Public Library. Despite the Wall Street crash, it remained open until 1946. The owner was the pharmacist-entrepreneur Fernando Rubió Tudurí (1900–1994). It was the first foreign direct investment made by a Spanish pharmaceutical multinational in the United States, using a maquila-style operation to export Spanish products made in the USA to Central American markets. Nothing has been published about this until now. Only interviews with Enrique and Mercè Rubió Boada (son and daughter of Fernando Rubió), digitalized sources from the company held by the Fundació Rubió Tudurí in Mahón, Minorca, and hard-to-access secondary sources have made the recovery of this history possible. The company closed its doors in the US and expanded in South American markets after World War II, but the short history of their investment in the United States reveals the potential and international capabilities of Spanish pharmaceutical companies before the Spanish Civil War. Moreover, it reveals how the Spanish Civil War was a disaster for millions of people but in some special cases it became an opportunity for companies in the science industries. Few pharmaceutical firms like Andrómaco, with entrepreneurs, resources, and a long-term vision, took the decision to invest in the most profitable (though also the most difficult) market for pharmaceutical products in the world: the United States. Andrómaco was created in Barcelona in 1923 by two scientist-entrepreneurs (Raul Roviralta and Fernando Rubió Tudurí). A nutritional product called Glefina (made with Norwegian cod oil from Ålesund and sugar) brought the small firm considerable success in sales in Spain in the mid-1920s. Making use of impressive networks (with the Spanish royal family, Catalan political elites, and the medical and pharmaceutical profession in Spain and Germany) and innovative commercial approaches (sending free samples to selected clients like King Alfonso XIII’s family circle and Dr Gregorio Marañón) were key business strategies during those years. The commercial subsidiary had two employees that coordinated the outsourcing of the production to local US producers, with exports of their US-made Andrómaco products going to Central American clients. Those clients loved buying a US-made product designed and sold by a Spanish pharmacist living in Long Island, with an office in Manhattan, who frequently travelled from the US to Latin America in the tough years of the Depressio