Urban penalty and sanitary reform in a metallurgical mining city: Linares (1860-1920)

Abstract

This article begins with a first section where the term urban penalty is defined and analyzed. The second part contains information showing that Linares suffered urban penalty both in excess mortality and height. The third section is focused on the study of the sanitary reform of the city, initiated in the early 1890s, and on its effects on mortality. The fourth section documents that the Linares urban penalty was less serious than the one of a "twin" city (La Unión), but more serious and persistent than the one of the miningmetallurgical zone of the Bilbao estuary. The article ends with some conclusions where we systematize the reasons that explain the different severity and duration of the urban penalty in the three miningmetallurgical zones.