Dirty wool, scoured wool. Wool-scouring mills and their owners in Early Modern Spain (16th-19th centuries): State of the question

Abstract

In Early Modern Spain, almost a hundred of wool-scouring mills were key locations in the economic geography of the country. The purpose of these preindustrial sites was the washing of the wool, bagging, classification and redistribution of this capital raw material for Early Modern European manufactures. This article, after defining what was a wool-scouring mill, we will place –geographically and historiographically– 84 sites documented in Spain with wool-scouring mills and their owners –Castilian and mostly from other European nations– during Early Modern Age.