Institutions, businessmen and market: the industrialisation of Navarre during Franco’s regime

Abstract

From a dual perspective of the regional economic development and the theory of economic planning, this article tackles an analysis of the factors that explain why a territory of reduced dimensions and scarce demography industrialised during Franco’s dictatorship. In Navarre the institutional intervention gave visibility to the impulse of the market forces. Foreign and native businessmen, business opportunities, fiscal advantages, and a strategic location between some of Spain’s principal manufacturing centres, contributed to this region’s profound process of social and economic change. The manufacturing model followed the pattern created by the car industry and metal industry. This success exhibits a striking difference in comparison to the relative failure of the development poles created by López Rodó’s Commisariat.