ABSTRACT
Within a Western context the Spanish cotton and woollen textile industries by no means stood out because of their size and dynamism. 1 They attained considerable importance in Catalonia during the nineteenth century, but they tended to be rather inward looking; largely unable to compete in foreign markets they sheltered behind increasingly high tariff barriers. Where, in the present context, a study of these industries can be very useful is with respect to the light they shed on processes at work on a global scale. In this chapter we have focused our attention on three broad, interrelated areas: the economic development and evolving industrial structure of the industries; their changing gender and ethnic composition; and labour relations, union organization and worker protest.
