The formation of a mining working class. An approach from the case of Linares, 1824-1842

Abstract

The article studies the process of proletarianization during the phase before the mining boom in the town of Linares by analysing population registers and censuses. The age and gender composition and the occupational structure, as well as the changes they suffered, are characterised. It is concluded that the growth of the population of Linares before the 1840s was significant and that the reasons for this are to be found in the increase in marriage and a positive migratory imbalance. The changes in the socio-professional structure of the population before the mining take-off and the characterisation of immigration allow the formulation of hypotheses that connect this growth with probable transformations in agriculture and mining. The agricolisation process and the development of a more capitalised mining-metallurgical activity would be the foundations of these transformations.