Sánchez, Alex

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

Between May 2012 and March 2013, the Saló del Tinell in the Royal Palace 
of Barcelona hosted an exhibition organized by the History Museum of 
Barcelona (MUHBA) of which I had the honour of acting as curator. Under 
the title “Indianes, 1736-1847. The origins of industrial Barcelona”, the 
exhibition bore witness to the contribution of these printed calico fabrics, 
and that of cotton manufacturing in general, to the economic growth and 
development of the city. 
Although the exhibition was not strictly speaking the first held in Catalonia 
on the calico prints known as indianes, it is certainly the most ambitious, both 
in terms of its theme and the chronological range. The few precedents that we 
know of, for instance the exhibition held by the Society for the Decorative Arts 
in the Spanish Village in Barcelona in 19441 or the very interesting display 
entitled Indianes, estampats organized in 2007 by the Museum of History of 
Sabadell2, centred above all on the collections of these individual institutions 
and aimed to provide a historically contextualized explanation of how they 
were made and used. The focus of the current exhibition was rather different. 
Its starting point obviously is the indianes, but what it sought to explain was 
why and how the development of their production in Barcelona became the 
trigger of the process of industrialization in Catalonia and, above all, of its 
capital city. The aim, then was to show that these calicoes were the fabrics of 
our industrial revolution. 
The origin of this exhibition was a project involving the Museum of History 
of Barcelona and the Historical Archive of the City of Barcelona, which began 
with the course entitled The industry of the indianes in Barcelona, 1730-1850, 
organized by the Seminar in the History of Barcelona of the Historical Archive 
of the City between October 2010 and February 20113. This course aimed to 
publicize the advances in the research into the industry of the calico prints  
over the last 25 years, thanks to the work of specialists in different fields 
– history, economics, art, architecture, technology and library science – who 
have uncovered new documentary sources and have helped to expand our 
understanding of our industrial past4. It was the first time that the history 
The calicoes and the origins 
of industrial Barcelona, 
1736‑1847
by Alex Sánchez
(Universitat de Barcelona)
1 Agustí Duran i 
Sempere wrote a critique of 
this exhibition in Barcelona. 
Divulgación Histórica. Vol I, 
1945, pp. 164-166.
2 The exhibition was 
accompanied by a catalogue: 
Indianes, estampats, Museum 
of History of Sabadell, 2007.
3 Alex Sánchez 
(Coord.), La indústria de 
les indianes a Barcelona, 
1730-1850, Barcelona. 
Quaderns d’Historia, nº 17, 
Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat, 
Ajuntament de Barcelona, 
Barcelona, 2011.
4 A chronological list of the 
most important studies of 
the industry of the indianes 
in Barcelona published since 
1974: Ramon Grau and 
Marina López, “Empresari 
i capitalista a la manufactura 
catalana del segle xviii. 
Introducció a l’estudi de 
les fàbriques d’indianes”, 
Recerques, nº 4, 1974, pp. 19-
57, Alex Sánchez, “La era 
de la manufactura algodonera 
en Barcelona, 1736-1839”, 
Estudios de Historia Social, 
nº 48-49, 1989, pp. 65-114, 
Alex Sánchez, “L’estructura 
comercial d’una fàbrica 
d’indianes barcelonina: 
Joan Rull i Cia (1790-
1821)”, Recerques, 22, 1989, 
pp. 9-24, James ThomSon, 
28 open source language version > català
THE CALICOES AND THE ORIGINS OF INDUSTRIAL BARCELONA, 1736-18472
Calico print showing Montserrat and the devil’s bridge Cotton. Catalonia 1840. 
CdMT 7416. © Quico Ortega, CdMT.
of this industry had been explored from such a wide range of perspectives. In 
view of the success of the course it was decided to organize an exhibition to 
underline the importance of this industry in the history of Barcelona5. 
The result was an exhibition which, bringing together a total of 124 pieces 
from a variety of museums, institutions, and public and private entities, 
constitutes the largest display of its kind ever staged in Catalonia, and probably 
in Europe. Its uniqueness does not lie so much in the volume of the printed 
fabrics exhibited as in their variety. Fabrics, dress and furniture were on show, 
but also books, leaflets, documents, paintings, portraits, engraving, maps, 
ceramics and machines, all of them duly contextualized and described in 
written texts and with statistical, graphic and audiovisual support. 
“Els orígens de la indústria 
d’indianes a Barcelona”, in 
La indústria d’indianes a 
la Barcelona del segle xviii, 
L’Avenç, Barcelona, 1990, 
pp. 7-59, Jordi naDaL, “Sobre 
l’entitat de la indianeria 
barcelonina del set-cents. 
Nota suggerida per la lectura 
d’un article d’Alexandre 
Sánchez”, Recerques, 24, 1991, 
pp. 181-185, Alex Sánchez, 
“La indianeria catalana: 
¿mito o realidad?”, Revista 
de Historia Industrial, nº 
1, 1992, pp. 213-232, James 
ThomSon, Els origens de la 
industrialització a Catalunya. 
El cotó a Barcelona, 1728-1832. 
Edicions 62, Barcelona, 1994, 
pp. 62-129. Alex Sánchez, 
“Crisis económica y respuesta 
empresarial. Los inicios del 
sistema fabril en la industria 
algodonera catalana, 1797-
1839”, Revista de Historia 
Económica, XVIII, nº 3, 2000, 
p. 485-523, Alex Sánchez, 
“Les bergadanes i les primeres 
màquines de filar”, in Jordi 
maLuquer De moTeS 
(dir.), Tècnics i tecnología 
en el desenvolupament de la 
Catalunya contemporània, 
Enciclopedia Catalana, 
Barcelona, 2000, pp. 161-
175, James ThomSon, 
“Transferencia tecnológica 
en la industria algodonera 
catalana: de las indianas 
a la selfactina”, Revista de 
Historia Industrial, nº 24, 
2003, p. 13-50, Francesc 
VaLLS, La Catalunya 
atlàntica. Aiguardent i teixits 
a l’arrencada industrial 
catalana, Vic, Eumo, 
2004, James ThomSon, 
“Explaining the take-
off of the Catalan cotton 
industry”, Economic History 
Review, LVIII, 4, 2005, pp. 
701-735, Alex Sánchez 
(Coord.), La indústria de 
les indianes a Barcelona, 
1730-1850, Barcelona. 
Quaderns d’Història, nº 17, 
Arxiu Històric de la Ciutat, 
Ajuntament de Barcelona, 
Barcelona, 2011, Alex 
Sánchez, “Els orígens de 
la industrialització, 1750-
1832, in Jordi naDaL, 
Josep Mª BenauL i Carles 
SuDrià (Dirs.), Atles 
de la industrialització de 
Catalunya, 1750-2010, Vicens 
Vives, Barcelona, 2012, 
pp. 11-53. 
5 The project also included 
an itinerary, designed and 
directed by Jaume Artigues, 
which, entitled The city of 
the indianes. Barri de Sant 
Pere, identifies the evidence 
existing today of the old 
printed textile factories in the 
area of the city that housed 
most of the production.
handkerchief made at the factory 
owned by erasme de Gònima i 
Passarell in the 1790s (Premià 
de Mar Textile Printing Museum, 
10640). Photo: esther de Prades.
See detail.
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The CAliCOes ANd The ORiGiNs OF iNdusTRiAl bARCelONA, 1736-18474
The chance to bring together such a large quantity of pieces is in itself proof 
of the vitality that Catalan calico print production enjoyed in its day. Apart 
from the prints themselves, the material and documentary evidence conserved 
in archives and museums can give a fair idea of the importance of an economic 
activity in a specific location. In this regard Barcelona has one of the finest 
documentary resources in Europe on the subject of the indianes, and Catalonia 
is also one of the few regions in the continent with a museum devoted to their 
production, the Premià de Mar Textile Printing Museum6. The other great printed 
fabric museum in Europe is the Musée de l’Impression sur Étoffes in Mulhouse. 
Barcelona and Mulhouse were among Europe’s main cotton manufacturing 
centres and both cities were important industrial leaders at regional level.
All the material and documentary evidence was organized in four broad 
areas and 14 subareas, which gave form to the thread of the exhibition. The 
thematic approach paid close attention to the chronological perspective and to 
the close interrelation between Barcelona and Catalonia. It also incorporated 
the international dimension to demonstrate the place that Barcelona occupied at 
European level. 
6 The fact that the Textile 
Printing Museum is in Premià 
de Mar and not in Barcelona, 
which was the real centre of 
this productive activity, is as 
much to do with the personal 
initiative and efforts of its 
creators as with the industrial 
relevance of this coastal town. 
In fact, inside the network 
of industrial museums in 
Catalonia, which in many 
aspects is excellent, a museum 
that celebrates the close 
relation between Barcelona 
and the cotton industry is 
lacking.
Allegory of the industry. Calico print. 
Cotton. Catalonia, half xix Century. 
CdMT, 17004. © Quico Ortega, 
CdMT. See detail.
28 open source language version > català
The CAliCOes ANd The ORiGiNs OF iNdusTRiAl bARCelONA, 1736-18475
Calico print with flowers. Cotton. Catalonia 1760-1770. MTib-22.071. See detail.
The first area, entitled From business emporium to manufacturing city: 
eighteenth-century Barcelona, showed when, how and why the production 
of calicoes began in the Catalan capital. The area identifies the commercial 
character of the city and the legacy of its artisanal tradition as the key factors 
in its transformation at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning 
of the eighteenth. Barcelona became an important market for the new printed 
fabrics arriving from Asia along the Mediterranean route that began in Aleppo 
and Smyrna and ended in the ports of Italy, France and Spain. Between 1736 
and 1738 the Catalan capital established itself as a key centre of printed calico 
production. 
The second area focused on the product itself and described the calicoes in 
detail. Under the title The art of making indianes, it showed both the technical 
process of production and the uses of the printed cotton fabrics in dress and 
decoration, and also described the firms, factories, entrepreneurs, and workers 
who were involved in their manufacture. The area stressed the predominantly 
urban nature of the industry in Catalonia, specifically in Barcelona and paid 
tribute to its important institutional dimension; in fact, calico production led 
to the creation of the first Catalan business organizations, the precursors of the 
modern-day organization known as Foment del Treball Nacional, and some of 
the schools of the Board of Commerce which launched vocational training in 
Catalonia. 
The third area, From printing to spinning: technical innovation and 
industrial modernization, described the transformation of the manufacture 
of calicoes in the eighteenth century into the modern cotton industry of 
the nineteenth, and the factors that made it possible. The huge size of the 
manufacturing sector of Barcelona at the end of the eighteenth century, due 
largely to the printing of linen fabrics imported from the north of Europe to be 
sold in the American market, created the conditions necessary for the process 
of modernization in the early nineteenth century. This process, based above all 
on the mechanization of spinning, was carried out at a time of great hardship 
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The CAliCOes ANd The ORiGiNs OF iNdusTRiAl bARCelONA, 1736-18477
in Catalonia due to the crisis caused by the Peninsular War, the loss of Spain’s 
colonies, and the Liberal Revolution. 
The fourth area centred on the impact on the city of Barcelona of the 
development of the cotton industry. From manufacturing to industry was the 
title of the last section of the exhibition which examined the development 
of the first factory areas, Sant Pere and El Raval, due to the expansion of 
indiana factories, and the controversy surrounding the consequences of this 
growth in the late eighteenth century. This area continued with an appraisal 
of the industrial modernization of the first half of the nineteenth century, 
its transformation of the urban area, the appearance of factory towns on the 
outskirts of Barcelona, and the demolition of the walls to allow the unlimited 
expansion of the City. 
The exhibition closed with an epilogue entitled “El nostre enginy, el nostre 
cor, lanostra llançadora”, (literally, Our genius, our heart, our shuttle loom”) a 
sentence that appeared in an article published in the Barcelona newspaper El 
Vapor in 1834. How did the process of industrial modernization that began at 
the end of the eighteenth century survive the crisis of the Ancien Regime and 
create the modern city of Barcelona? If we translate “enginy” as creativity, “cor” 
as work and “llançadora” as manufacturing tradition or legacy, we have the 
Photo: © Andrea Manenti.
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The CAliCOes ANd The ORiGiNs OF iNdusTRiAl bARCelONA, 1736-18478
factors that allowed our forefathers to overcome the difficulties of the time and 
take on the challenges of the future. 
So the exhibition at the Saló del Tinell offered a complete overview of the 
development of the manufacture of calicoes and what it represented for the city 
of Barcelona. It explains why this production emerged in the Catalan capital, 
how it fostered the development of the modern cotton industry, and how it 
contributed to changing the urban space and creating a new kind of city – in 
spite of extremely difficult conditions which could have put an end to the 
city’s industrial growth at practically any moment. All in all, the exhibition 
was particularly opportune, not just because printed fabrics are coming back 
into fashion with the rediscovery of the Toiles de Jouy, but above all because it 
offers a historical perspective on a very topical issue – the difficulties facing an 
industrial system at a time of crisis. 
Trunk. Museum of Pedralbes. 
Photo: MuhbA Archive - Pep Parer. 
MMP-115.094.
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The CAliCOes ANd The ORiGiNs OF iNdusTRiAl bARCelONA, 1736-18479


The calicoes and the origins of industrial Barcelona, 1736‑1847

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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert