The diverse growth of 18th-century Catalonia: Proto-industrialisation

The concept of proto-industrialisation was useful for examining economic activities in many areas prior to the onset of industrialisation. In Catalonia, it was used to spotlight the wool industry and other activities and to separate it from what was believed to me a more modern economic activity, the manufacture of calico. The economic activities found all over a country are the ones that indicate its ability to make the most of the opportunities that were emerging and show that industrialisation based on the cotton industry – as well as on other outputs – was nothing more than the seizing of an opportunity by a land that was poised to do so. The article reflects on the roots of this ability.