La industrialización de la pesca en la provincia de Huelva (1800-1930)

This article seeks to analyse the evolution of the fishing sector in the province of Huelva, from 1800 until the first third of the 20th century. The sources used are varied and spring from different archives: municipal archives of Huelva, Ayamonte and Isla, Álvaro de Bazán archive, the National Library, etc. The fishing reports published in Huelva during the 19th and the early 20th centuries have proven to be very useful. The Annual Fishing Trade Statistics Directories (as well as The Revista de Pesca Maritima -Maritime Fishing Review and the Boletin de Pescas -Fishing Gazettes-) enabled us to reconstruct part of the fishing statistics of the time. Finally, the Parliamentary Report Book and the local press (La Provincia, La Higuerita, etc.) have also been used to puzzle out the dispute which arose in the sector. All these sources provide proof of the fact that the Huelva sardine and tuna fisheries already were at the peak production in the 19th century, thanks to the salting plants and the businessmen who controlled, in the strictest entrepreneurial views, the fishing-salting network. At the beginning of the 20th century, the introduction of mechanical traction in the fishing vessels of the province and the development of the canning industry would even enable the sector to reach industrial proportions. However, this growth would prove to be based on very weak foundations due to the crisis in the 1930s: the exploitation of fishing grounds over their ecological possibilities.