Bibliography

This work was awarded with the Premi Iluro in 2012. Is a description of the Catalan merchant marine of XVIII and XIX centuries, and focuses on the role of the maritime province of Mataró, northweast from Barcelona, the capital of a very important area full of little and medium maritime communities: Masnou, Premià, Vilassar, Masnou, Mataró, Arenys, Canet, and Calella, among other smaller towns. Every one of them had  a local shipbuilding industry and a sailing fleet, mailing ocean ship devoted to the traffic with the Spanish colonies in America. This area, with no natural or artificial ports, suffered the end of the sail and the maritime industries (except of the fishing) vanished in the last quarter of the XIX century.