This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights and duplication or sale of all or part is not permitted, except that material may be duplicated by you for research, private study, criticism/review or educational purposes. Electronic or print copies are for your own personal, non- commercial use and shall not be passed to any other individual. No quotation may be published without proper acknowledgement. For any other use, or to quote extensively from the work, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder/s. Chapter 8 THE GKOWTH POLE AT HUELVA The Economy of Huelva The economy of Huelva displays many of the classical characteristics of underdevelopment, in particular an over-reliance on mining and agriculture and a poorly developed industrial sector (Table 8:l). Although Huelva is rich in natural resources the province gains little benefit from the processing and manufacture of these raw materials, which for the most part are either sent to other parts of Spain or exported. The basic weakness of the economy is reflected in the ranking of the province in terms of per capita income (Table 8:2). In the period 1955-1967 Huelva's share in the growing national prosperity declined at an alarming rate. Prom being the 24th richest province in 1955 Huelva had slipped to 42nd place in 1967. Since 1967 there has been an improvement, which almost certainly can be ascribed to the new developments at the growth pole in Huelva city. i) Agriculture. Forestry and Pishing In Huelva agriculture faces the same problems as those found in the rest of western Andalusia. There is a preponderance of latifundios. usually owned by absentee landlords, together with a large number of very small holdings (Table 8:3). The predominance of latifundios with absentee landlords, coupled with the widespread occurrence of poor quality soils, han lead to the emphasis being given to those crops and cultivations which require little attention, especially vines, cereals, livestock and forestry. However, these products provide low yields and low profits. Attempts to improve yields by the introduction of irrigation have been frustrated by the lack of suitable water supplies. The two main rivers of the province, the Odiel and the Tinto, both contain large amounts of toxic minerals. Nevertheless attempts are being made to irrigate some of the coastal areas of the province*. 175 TABLE 8:1 Components of Economic Production in 1964: Huelva in Comparison with the Spanish Average. Huelva Spain io G.N.P. 1» G.N.P, l) Agriculture and forestry 19.5 18.5 2) Pishing 9.4 1.0 3) Mining 17.5 1.5 4) Manufacturing 17.5 55.2 5) Commerce 10.7 11.0 6) Transport 5.9 6.1 7) Banking 1.8 4.0 8) Public Administration 4.2 5.5 9) Hotels, accommodation, etc. 5.8 5.9 10) Property, rents, etc. 2.8 5.1 11) Other professional services 7.1 8.2 100.0 100.0 Source: Banco de Bilbao, 1967 TABLE 8:2 Ranking of Huelva Province in Terms of per capita Rational Income« Year Rank position 1955 — 24 1957 - 29 I960 - 29 1962 - 36 1964 - 39 1967 - 42 1969 - 40 1971 — 35 Source: Banco de Bilbao, 1973 TABLE 8:3 Size of Farm Holding in Huelva Province. 5í Total no. % Total area of farms of farms Less than 1 ha« 26.9 0.4 1 - 5 ha. 36.6 3.2 5 - 5 0 ha. 30.O 15.8 50 - 200 ha. 4.2 14.4 200 - 1,000 ha. 1.9 27.3 More than 1,000 ha. 0.4 38.9 100.0 100.0 Source: Censo Agrario, 1962 Forestry is important in Huelva, contributing 13.1% to total agricultural production, compared to a national total of 4*1 Approximately two-thirds of the total area of the province is covered in 2 forests with the cork oak predominating in the interior, and with pines and eucalyptus in the coastal regions. Although Huelva is one of the leading forestry provinces of Spain, much of the wood is sent elsewhere for further processing. Huelva, in terms of cash value of production, is the seventh largest fishing province in Spain. Fishing has become important within the last 20 years, especially with the development of new equipment and larger boats able to fish off the African coasts. However, as with forestry, much of the processing of the fish is carried on outside the province. The development of the fishing sector requires an increase in the refrigeration installations in the port of Huelva, a fleet of refrigerated lorries, and a 3 commercial organisation for grading, pricing and marketing the fish . ii) Mining Table 8 si shows the important contribution made by the mining sector to the economy of Huelva. The source of this mining wealth is the series of copper and iron pyrites ore bodies in the Sierra Aracena, approximately 60 km,north of the port of Huelva. The first evidence of mineral working in the area goes back to the Bronze Age and the semi-legendary kingdom of Tartessos (Tharsis ?). The people of Tartessos, mentioned by Strabo and other ancient authors, produced large quantities of gold, silver and copper from this area^. The Homans mined the pyrites with great vigour and many of their workings can still be seen today. From the end of Roman times until the appearance of British enterprise in the nineteenth century the pyrites were mined in a desultory fashion. During the nineteenth century the need for new sources of copper combined with the growing demand for sulphur from the British alkali industry led to a renewed interest being taken in the mines . In 1866 the Tharsis Sulphur and Copper Company was formed by Sir Charles Tennant, a leading alkali manufacturer of Glasgow. 176 The early success of the Tharsis company led, in 1875» to another British company taking over the Spanish royal mines at Rio Tinto. By the end of the nineteenth century these two companies had made the RÍo Tinto region "the greatest mining centre in the world"^« During the twentieth century the fortunes of the two British companies, and the whole mining prosperity of the region, went into a state of decline. The main zones of good cupreous ore became exhausted and the area was unable to complete with American-produced copper. By 1914 it was more profitable for the companies to export pyrites ore to Duisburg in Germany than to undertake any processing in Huelva. In the 1920's and 1930's competition in world markets from cheaper American sulphur caused a further decrease in production. This combination of factors led to a continual decrease in the export of pyrites ore from Huelva throughout the period 1906-1960^. Thus during the first half of the twentieth century the pyrites mines made a relatively small contribution to the economy of Huelva, iii) Industry Despite the abundance of raw materials, industry in Huelva was in a very backward state in 1964, which accounts for the small contribution made by manufacturing to total provincial production (Table 8jl). Apart from the processing of minerals, fish and agricultural produce, most of Huelva's industries were dependant on local demand for their markets. However, in the 1950's this situation began to change. In 1957 the state enterprise I.N.I. founded a new company, Celulosas de Huelva S.A., to exploit the province's eucalyptus forests. This firm built a factory near to Huelva which came into operation in August 1964, and which can produce up to 36,000 Tm. per year of celulosa and paper from the various types of eucalyptus grown in the region^. The most important industrial development in Huelva has been the establishment of a huge petrochemical complex based on the RÍo Tinto Company. In 1955 a group of Spanish banks took a two-thirds share in the Company and renamed it the Compañía Española de Minas de RÍo Tinto S.A. It has been the policy of the new Spanish company to act as a springboard 177 FIGURE 8:1 DEVELOPMENT OF THE RÍO TINTO COMPANY OVER THE PERIOD 1873-1973 for further activities in mineral and chemical manufacture. This policy* Q which has long been argued by A.Pinedo Vara7, is strongly supported by the Spanish government and^it is rumoured, by General Franco himself. Expansion has been achieved largely by co-operative ventures with other companies who have expertise in related fields (Figure 8:l). The first important move was the establishment of a new firm, üío Gulf de Petróleos S.A., with a 40% participation from the Gulf Oil Corporation of America. The government gave this firm permission to build an oil refinery at La Habida with an initial capacity of 4 million tons.p.a. In 1966 RÍo Gulf Petroquímica S.A. was formed to manufacture plastics, artificial fibres, detergents, etc., on the La tíabida site. Two other firms were formed at the same time to handle the commercial and maritime requirements of the group. Also in 1966 the Río Tinto Patino section was formed to look after all the copper production and smelting interests of the group. In 1969 the parent company, Compañía Española de Minas de RÍo Tinto S.A., merged with the chemical firm Unión Española de Explosivos S.A. to form a new company, Unién Explosivos RÍo Tinto S.A., thereby adding the production of fertilizers, industrial and military explosives, and other petrochemicals to the RÍo Tinto group's activities. In 1973 the group agreed to merge interests with Fertiberia S.A. in the production of fertilizers.