The Mancunian and Catalan Textile Industries

Okay it took me some time and some hardcore internet searching to find any links between Catalonia and Manchester, but I think I’ve found some! The main link I’ve focussed on is their shared history within the textile industry.

Manchester was one of Britain’s first towns to become industrialised and this was due to the major cotton industry that sprung up in the south of Lancashire and Cheshire during the late 1700s and early 1800s. The processing of this product took place in Manchester and, under such conditions, the city rapidly became one of the most industrialised cities worldwide and the centre of the cotton industry; so much so that it became known as “Cottonopolis” an “Warehouse City” and to this day many Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans continue to refer to common household linen such as bed sheets and pillow cases as Manchester. This boom in cotton manufacturing spilled into the creation of other industries in the cities, firstly in the production of machinery to power the trade itself and then into the manufacture of other products. Manchester was only surpassed by Bolton as the largest city in England in the 1850s and in 1913 still produced 65% of the world’s cotton.

Catalonia was also to become the major centre of the textile industry in Spain during a similar period, albeit more slowly, and was to benefit hugely from the technological advances made in the cotton producing centres of Britain in transforming Catalonia into a major industrial hub of Spain. The technology created to power the industry in England by such figures as Hargreaves (Who created the spinning jenny which was to be the most widely used model in Catalonia) and by Arkwright (whose machinery was used in the Lancashire mills that provided the raw cotton for processing in Manchester) were crucial in revolutionising Catalan mills in a nation that was behind the drag curve with regards to industrialisation. This allowed Catalonia to become the major cotton capital in Spain and thus in the Spanish empire, and the parallels drawn with the famous British city led to Barcelona becoming known as “Little Manchester”

So this is the link I found! I thought it was pretty interesting, and taught me a lot about Manchester as well as Barcelona!

Enjoy!
Chris