Tráfico y comercio maritimo entre Ribadeo y Bilbao a finales del siglo XVIII

Abstract

The evolution of the conditions of maritime commerce in Galicia in the 18th century had a considerable influence on the activity of its ports. In general terms, it favoured the concentration of commerce in Corunna. But, at the same time, it had its incidence in the contrary sense, as it provoked the loss of protagonism of places such as Ribadeo, the most significant port in northern Galicia. This port, in spite of the efforts invested in activating it with a lukewarm industrial project, could not maintain sufficiently considerable levels of negotiation to allow it to maintain international connections. This decadence is especially borne out by the practical cancellation of its relations with Bilbao in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when just a few years before it had been its point of maximum connection with the Atlantic markets.