ABSTRACT
This chapter commences with a broad appreciation of Basque maritime heritage and follows an evaluation of some of the key enabling factors that provided a basis for Bilbao to take off as a major port city. It addresses the contributions of indigenous and foreign finance to industrial expansion and expertise. The early settlement drew cohesion and vitality from the success of its maritime trading. The defences had been attacked on three separate occasions by French armies. San Sebastian appears to have retained its key medieval ingredients. Bilbao's development happened against a background of an archaic and stagnant rural world. Scarcity of charcoal pushed up prices in the early nineteenth century to such an extent those English and Swedish products massively undercut local ones and forced the smiths to import coal to replace inflatedly priced wood. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the morphological and social consequences of commercial growth and particularly of industrial expansion.
