Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

This article analyses the textile trade using an international, multilateral and multifibre approach. Its main contribution is to present new data on international textile trade in 1913, which reveals how, within European countries, there was a clear dominance of German exports, followed closely by those from France and Britain. The scenario that emerges is quite different to that obtained from an analysis of intercontinental trade, where British hegemony was still very evident in 1913. The fact that, when looking only at the intra-European textile trade, Britain lags behind Germany and is almost on par with France, indicates that we are dealing with very different markets to those emerging on aggregate data, in which analysis can be reduced to a single country.

This article discusses the characteristics that it acquired the non-ferrous metal production by focusing on the difficulties that were generated for a large sector manufacturer who care about the basic raw material during World War II, with special emphasis on the aluminum industry. In particular, consider based on primary source projects developed in those years to overcome these difficulties, among which stood out on those developed by the Directorate General of Military. As a hypothesis, the restrictions that took place during the course of the war and the varied responses they generated in the business and military led to the development of various manufacturing enterprises in that category and the creation and consolidation of legislation, bodies and instruments hitherto novel industrial policy. New laws and decrees in the mining and industrial promotion, rationing policies, export controls, credit facilities and direct government production projects through joint ventures or emerged in those years as a result of a climate of ideas that emphasized both progress in import substitution and in achieving greater industrial autarky.

This paper analyses the influence of economic thought in political debate in Spain at the end of 19th century. It studies the case of the debate in the Parliament on the introduction of progressive rates in the inheritance tax in 1900. The debate shows that the Members of Parliament at the discussion were conscious of the importance of a sound doctrinal founding of their lines of reasoning to defend their positions, for or against progressivity. Well-known European economists were often quoted as sources of authority, and, although these quotations sometimes were not rigorous but instrumental, it can be said that MPs had a fairly good degree of knowledge of contemporary trends of fiscal thought. Despite it being on a reform of a small tax, this debate was very controversial on behalf of the concern progressive taxation in a tax on capital raised in wealthy classes, represented in the Parliament. The diffusion of the discussions in media was noteworthy, thus contributing to the dissemination of economic ideas behind arguments among cultured Spanish elites.

In this study we analyse the effect of both foreign and domestic technological innovation on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) for Spain in the second half of the XXth century. For this purpose we estimate an extended version of Coe and Helpman (1995) model including a general human capital variable. The foreign and domestic stock of knowledge have been approximated throughout several variables such as the stock of R&D, the stock of patents and the expenses for using foreign licenses and patents. Our results suggest that the inflow of foreign technology had a positive and significant effect on the Spanish TFP, being this effect higher than the effect of the domestic stock of knowledge. Moreover, the openness to foreign trade has also favoured the arrival of foreign technology and the increase of productivity. Finally, it is interesting to highlight that our results indicate that human capital played also a relevant role on the evolution of TFP.