Impacto socioeconómico de la minería del zinc en Cantabria (1856-1939)la Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas

Resumen

The research developed in the present PhD Thesis covers the period from the middle of the 19th century (1856) to the beginning of Franco’s dictatorship (1940). Reocín's Collection, which includes books and unpublished files that are kept at the Library of the Polytechnic School of Mining and Energy Engineering (Torrelavega), and are derived from the records of Real Compañía Asturiana de Minas (RCA), has been adopted as a basis for the development of this work. With this unpublished information, it has been aimed to partially fill the scarce available knowledge about Zinc mining in Cantabria, and the behaviour of the operating enterprise in most of the mines of the province. It has been intended to develop a transversal study of all the mining aspects, specially the paternalism of RCA, without avoiding all the processes of exploitation and workers’ struggles. Many open doors have been left to be filled with other studies that complete the history of such a major mine as Reocín, and all the other exploitations within the Zinciferous belt of Cantabria.