Provincial wholesale distributors in the commercialization of Catalan textiles (1850-1930)

Abstract

This paper analyses the important role provincial wholesalers played in the marketing of Catalan textile goods. Manufacturers improved their own commercial network in the Spanish market during the last third of the XIXth century through travellers and fixed agents. This enabled them to reach directly more cities and clients. However, big commission houses in Barcelona and provincial wholesalers in the main Spanish cities continued to be important. Analysing a commercial firm from Zaragoza, "Casa Fortea", we realise that these wholesalers reached those towns and clients too small to have a direct link with cotton firms.