Managerial behaviors and industrial structure. The gas of Malaga, 1852-1929

Abstract

The gas network was an important urban infrastructure exerting an essential role for the development of several 19th Century industrialized cities.At the same time, these cities created the favorable context for the gas networks expansion and, later, for other innovative infrastructures, as the railways, the telephone and the electricity. The most important characteristics of gas –efficiency and stability- were rapidly appreciated by the urban industrial structure because the gas allowed to several industrial activities an important factor of productivity.The increasing demand of the new lighting and energy source was the first element for the development of the new urban infrastructure, which were, at the same time, the key element for the urban growth. But in order that dynamics were effective, it was needed a growing volume of particular demand, dependent of a dense and increasing industrial tissue.In the Spanish southeast city of Malaga, the consecutive installation of gas network attempts were invalidated by several factors, essentially the enterprise management and the precarious level of industrial demand.