In search of lost time: conquest of foreign markets and development of the footwear industry in Spain during the second half of the 20"" century

Abstract

This paper analyzes how Spain became one of the largest footwear-exporting countries in the world and how this industry developed unti1 the end of the twentieth century. For this purpose it examines the international supply and demand of footwear; and compares the evolution of the Spanish industry with the Italian one. It explains, so, why the takeoff of shoe exports was done later and under less favourable circumstances in Spain than in Italy. It also shows that the growth of the Spanish industry was not a mere consequence of the lower labour cost, but a complex historical process, in which institutional elements, specific features of the footwear production and the evolution of foreign markets played a decisive role.