Summary - TST 13

TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES


TST 13

Jesús María Valdaliso
Las navieras españolas en el espejo británico (c. 1860 - c. 1914): la transferencia de capitales, sistemas de gestión y modelos de financiación en una industria internacionalizada

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Key words: Technological transfer; foreign capital; financing system; merchant navy; Spain, 1860-1914.

[ Abstract ]

This paper shows that both the management and financing models employed by the Spanish merchant fleet between 1860 and 1914, and the great majority of their new ships as well, came from Britain. Besides, Britain was the main foreign investor in this industry: some of the largest Spanish shipping firms in the last third of the 19th century were financed with capital provided by merchant, shipbroking and shipowning houses from England, and others were mere subsidiaries of British firms. This flow of institutions, technology and capital from Britain to Spain explains, together with other endogenous factors, the striking speed of the technological change process in Spanish fleet, one of the first fleets in the world in having completed the transition from sail to steam before the end of the 19th century. This technology transfer was not only helped by the central role played by Britain in the international shipping business, but by a strong commercial relationship between the Spanish shipowners and their British colleagues as well.