En Andalousie occidentale : systèmes de transports et développement économique (XVIe-XIXe siècle)

Résumé En

Can it be said that a system of transportation deficient in its beginning because of natural conditions is one of the major factors responsible for a certain stagnation in western Andalusia today? The system was essentially based on pack animals -mules and donkeys in the absence of passable roads and navigable rivers. Even if the large commercial exchanges at Seville and Cadiz were barely affected, since they were based on maritime navigation, coastal trafic and, for light-weight valuable goods, pack animals, the result was nevertheless, that it was impossible to create dynamic activity in the region. Thus, self-subsistance, even in the 18th century, remained the way of life in numerous villages situated only a few leagues from the capitals of international trade. The coast, however, and the lower valleys with their navigable waterways were favored in comparison to the interior, somewhat like the situation in Catalonia. This article describes the network of communications, the trade channels, and shows the failure of the large public works projects. A series of quantitative data, namely the number of mule drivers and their geographic distribution, provides an indication of transport activity. The few figures obtainable suggest that the cost of transportations was truly prohibitive for heavy local products thus leading to the absence of regional market