Analyzing retail trade in Castile and Leon: The Valladolid example

Abstract

This paper analyses retail trade in Castile and Leon cities and towns in the XIXth Century. It offers data on both the public and private sectors. By comparing trade in Valladolid and the rest of Castile and Leon cities and towns, we can observer that this trade only modernised and really changed in the second part of the century, although trade liberalisation as well as political evolution have taken ground some years before. It is in the second half of the XIXth centutry when retail traders did upgrade their premises, which resulted in a trade increase in the next century, a period in which both Castile and Leon economy and Spanish economy grew. This is shown in the increase experimented in trade activity as well as its diversification and specialisation.