Bilbao, Spain

Historical Development

A city's fortunes, however, go beyond the reach of a cultural artifact, regardless of how successful and “global” it may be. Bilbao was already a globalizing city shortly after its foundation in 1300—the King of Castile chartered the city as a node in the networks of trade between Castile and the world. As the place from which Castilian wool and Basque iron were exported to Europe, the city played a key role in the European subsystem of trade. Basque merchants were present and active in the major world cities at the time. Bilbao's development during the following centuries shows an expanding city struggling to preserve its commercial freedoms vis-à-vis the Spanish state. For much of its history, the city has been a frontier town between Spain, Europe, and America, adapting its commercial relations to the ebb and flow of world markets and the success or failure of centralizing efforts from Madrid. Whereas for most of the Fordist period Bilbao was gradually integrated into the Spanish economy, the current phase of globalization, together with the high degree of political autonomy for the Basque Country, is again taking the city on a path to globalization.

Bilbao's industrialization in the late nineteenth century gave rise to its modern business elite, which grew out of the mining business and diversified investments in other sectors and other regions in Spain, exemplifying the Spanishness of Basque capitalism. At the same time, foreign economic relations continued at a good pace in Bilbao. Exports of local iron, in particular, reached unprecedented [Page 76]levels as the city became the main supplier for Great Britain during the latter's imperial apogee prior to World War I. Structural adjustments in the Basque industry and the consolidation of liberalization and centralization policies undertaken by the various Spanish governments during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, meant that Bilbao's industry was much more geared to producing and selling in a protected Spanish market than competing in foreign arenas. Following the abolition of the Basque privilege to import goods duty-free, the city became fully integrated into the Spanish economy. In historical terms, Fordist Bilbao was an era of deglobalization for the city, especially the period from 1936 to 1973. Through its port, Bilbao continued to serve as a node in trade between Spain and the world, but uneven development within Spain helped Basque industrialists to execute a strategy of industrial expansion, which strengthened the structural ties between the city and the nation-state. These were the times when Bilbao's per capita income was the highest of all Spanish cities.

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