The assisted growth of the chemical industry in Spain: Fabricación Nacional de Colorantes y Explosivos, 1922-1965

Abstract

This paper analyzes the making of the modern chemical industry in 20th century Spain. It focuses on Fabricación Nacional de Colorantes y Explosivos (FNCE), a company founded in the nationalistic environment of the inter-war period but soon allied with the first chemical combine of the world, the I.G. Farben. Cooperation with the Germans took place between 1927 and 1945 and between 1955 and 1965. After that, the Catalan company became a subsidiary of Bayer, one of the 1.G. heirs. Although a profitable business, FNCE did not satisfy the expectations of its founders, who had hoped to build the first Spanish modern chemical company with the assistance of the I.G. This work explains how Spanish management, German strategy, industrial policy, and the international environment, with diverse intensity, came to frustrate such expectations