The institutional reforms which eased the restrictions on the access to maritime resources and improved supply and the mobility of production factors in this sector from 1860 onwards laid the foundations for its modernization. The real opportunities came some time later due to the integration of the Asturian economy in the national market and to the increase in overseas demand for canned fish. The results would be soon noted in the motorization of the inshore fleet as well as in the creation of new industrial companies in the deep-sea fisheries. The aim of this article is to provide evidence and to analyse the processes of those changes
