Casals Camps Escoles Junta Comerc Llotja MUHBA (1)

The ''Royal Barcelona Board Trade'' ( es, Real Junta Particular de Comercio, ca, Reial Junta Particular de Comerç de Barcelona) was the leading institution for regulating, representing and promoting Catalan commercial and industrial activity in the 18th and 19th century with jurisdiction over the whole

Principality of Catalonia The Principality of Catalonia ( ca, Principat de Catalunya, la, Principatus Cathaloniæ, oc, Principat de Catalonha, es, Principado de Cataluña) was a Middle Ages, medieval and early modern state (polity), state in the northeastern Iberian P ...

. It was created in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...

and replaced in

1847 Events January–March * January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government. * January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends fighting in the Mexican–American War in California. * January 16 – John C. Frémont ...

by the Provincial Board of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce.

History and function

After the suppression of the

Consulate of the Sea The Consulate of the Sea ( ca, Consolat de mar; ) was a quasi-judicial body set up in the Crown of Aragon, later to spread throughout the Mediterranean basin, to administer maritime and commercial law. The term may also refer to a celebrated co ...

and the universities under the

Nueva Planta decrees The Nueva Planta decrees ( es, link=no, Decretos de Nueva Planta, ca, Decrets de Nova Planta, en, link=no, "Decrees of the New Plant") were a number of decrees signed between 1707 and 1716 by Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain, during ...

, local merchants sought a new institution to regulate and support commerce, trade and agriculture and to represent them to royal authorities. It was recognised that traders needed to be trained in accounting, navigators were needed to transport products across the Atlantic, designers were needed to make the products more attractive to consumers, chemists were needed to prepare dyes and other products, technicians were needed to improve agriculture. The Board of Trade was mainly focused on improving the textile industry including securing trade protection, issuing manufacturing and guild regulations and encouraged research into manufacturing processes. It agitated for the abolition of the bubble tax in 1769 and the opening of Catalonia to American commerce in 1778. Although the Board mostly represented the interests of the big merchants, it also provided a lot of support to artisans and guilds as well as the petite bourgeoisie. The Board encouraged technical and artistic education, disseminating scientific knowledge coming from abroad, and encouraged innovation in production and trade. It established schools of sailing and navigation (1769), drawing and the fine arts (1775), shorthand (1775), trade (1787), bureau of machines (1804), chemistry (1805), botany and agriculture (1807), mechanics (1808) physics (1814) and economics (1814). Evening classes and free drawing and engraving courses for chintz factory workers was crucial to the growth of that industry and helped to consolidate Barcelona as a city of manufacturing in the mid 18th century.

Building

The former seat of the Consulate of the Sea in Barcelona, the '' Llotja de Mar'' ( es, Lonja de Mar) which had been used as barracks since 1714, was granted to the Board of Trade in 1767. The Board remodeled the site and built a neoclassical building, between 1774 and 1802. This building covered (and preserved) the 14th century trading hall ( ca, Saló de Contractacions).

References

External links

History of the University of Barcelona

Encyclopedia.cat

La Llojta de Mar

Bibliography

* * * * * {{Cite journal, first=Javier Antón, last=Pelayo, title= The Enlightenment in Catalonia, year=2013, language=english, journal=Catalan Historical Review, publisher=Institut d´Estudis Catalans, location=Barcelona, doi=10.2436/20.1000.01.86, volume=6 Companies established in 1758 1758 establishments in Spain Spanish colonization of the Americas Trading companies of Spain

History and function

Building

See also

References

External links

Bibliography