Éxito y ocaso de una saga de negociantes catalanes en Galicia: la Casa de Comercio Francisco Ferrer y Albà (1750-1860)

Abstract

This article tries to review the social and economic phenomenon that meant the arrival of Catalonian businessmen to Galicia in the eighteenth century. This line of research has been extensively studied by the Galician historiography either from a global point of view or through famous business families, most of them have survived till nowadays. However, we can not forget that many of the Catalonian families that arrived at Galician lands had a humbler origin and they were not always successful in business. The Casa de Comercio Francisco Ferrer Albà is an example of this. The history of this saga from its settlement to its decline offers a new perspective of analysis in that we can find a family company, founded by Catalonian promoters, which could not survive the disturbed years that Spain lived from 1750 to 1860.