Impressions of Spain

by Albert Frederick Calvert

Yet with all this mineral wealth to hand, only waiting to be systematically developed to yield immense returns, less than ten per cent. of the population of Spain are engaged in its mining industries; and between sixty and seventy per cent. are occupied in various branches of agriculture, or in pastoral pursuits. The reason is not far to seek. In many parts the country realises Mr. Stephen Phillips’s dream of that fair land where

“Trees without care shall blossom, and the fields
Shall without labour unto harvest come.”

The Spanish peasant can tend his land to produce sufficient for his needs, and allow him to be independent of his fellows. He is more contented and happier, and his best qualities are more strikingly evident when he is “on his own” than in the mass. Unregulated labour is congenial to him, and if his earnings are small, his wants are few. Agriculture appeals to his temperament and satisfies his needs. Mining, however, demands capital which he has not got, and experience which he has no means of acquiring. It is something which he does not understand. The Spanish noblemen and landed proprietors who own the mines neglect this source of revenue for another reason. Englishmen, nobles or commoners, who possess mineral land do not hesitate to turn their possessions to practical account; but the Spaniard has the greatest aversion to anything that savours of trade. In England pig-iron is aristocratic, though tenpenny nails still remain scarcely respectable; in Spain wholesale and retail are alike beneath the dignity of the aristocracy.

TRANSPORT OF ORE, ARCOCHA, BILBAO.

But, although since the days of the Ancients the minerals of Spain have not been worked on the same enormous scale that was then adopted, the industry has never been neglected to the extent that is generally supposed. The majority of people cherish the delusion that since the times of the Moors the metallic resources of the Peninsula have not been exploited, and that the revival of activity that is now being witnessed is a development of recent months. Nothing could be further from the truth. That the eyes of English capitalists and investors have only lately been turned upon this Bonanza is an indisputable fact; but in a quiet unostentatious way the country has been mined without interruption for centuries, and fabulous fortunes have been made by a comparatively small number of people. And this select coterie of millionaire mine-owners has, for years, managed to disguise the magnitude of its operations and secure immunity from active competition.

Before the discovery of America thousands of mines were being energetically exploited in Spain; new mineral discoveries were of daily occurrence, and Royal Charters were granted by tens of thousands. But the astounding richness of the mines of Peru and Central America enticed whole armies of Spanish miners to the new Eldorado, and for a while the home industry languished. Spain has never since re-attained its commanding position as a mineral country in the eyes of the world; but hundreds and hundreds of mines have been and are being worked by small companies and private individuals, and the returns have been buried from sight in official statistics and unpublished records. While the general public were being kept out of the country as the result of this carefully cultivated policy of suppression of facts, it was inevitable that the plums should fall into the hands of a few wealthy monopolists. The small local owners did not stand a chance. If they mined for copper there was no market for their ore; the fall in the price of tin rendered that industry for a while unprofitable, and the development of iron properties necessitated the expenditure of more capital than the Spanish proprietors could command. And the agents of the mammoth firms, who form a close corporation for the exploitation of Spain’s mineral resources, have been up and down the country, inspecting, and acquiring for ready cash all the most promising properties. There has been no fuss, no sensation, no publicity, and no incitement to competition. The direct consequence of this condition of affairs has been to give currency to all kinds of erroneous impressions with respect to the condition, the profits, and the prospects of Spanish mining. A general belief has grown up that the minerals have been largely worked out; that the difficulties of transport, the vexatious mining regulations, and the paucity of natural facilities have combined to spoil the industry—fallacies which have been fostered by those whose interests were best conserved by their promulgation.

LOS ALTOS HORNOS DEL DISIERTO, BILBAO.

This condition of affairs has obtained very largely in the iron industry of Northern Spain—an industry that is so widely known that it is unnecessary here to make more than passing reference to it; but in the Southern Provinces (principally) of Almeria, Granada, and Murcia, the iron mines are being developed in the interests of a far larger number of persons. Both foreign and Spanish capital is invested in the enterprise, and many of the mines are fully equipped with wire tramways and American waggons, and the promise of the future of the Southern iron fields is well on its way to being realised. Foreign capitalists are embarked in the venture which, until now, has attracted the attention of few Englishmen; and, indeed, until recently Englishmen have only possessed a vague idea of the magnitude and richness of Spain’s mineral deposits. The French people realised it long ago, and attempted, in a half-hearted and parsimonius manner, to develop them, but with only indifferent success. Native enterprise proved even less satisfactory, and the attempt of the Government to work the world-famous Rio Tinto mines resulted in utter failure, and the sale of the property by public tender in 1873. The Rio Tinto