Contenu de l'article

Titre Stratégies entrepreneuriales dans le développement des réseaux gaziers. Le cas de Barcelone (1843-1930)
Auteur Mercédès Arroyo Huguet
Mir@bel Revue Flux
Numéro no 39-40, janvier-juin 2000
Rubrique / Thématique
Dossier : Réseaux en conflit
Page 40-47
Résumé anglais Gas networks were, in their beginnings, an affair with a high degree of economic risk. On the one hand, they required an important volume of initial capital; on the other hand, the demand for gas was unknown. To manage this risk, a very accurate entrepreneurial behavior was necessary to assure the control over the territory and the continued expansion of the network. In the beginning of gas networks' spread, the mercantilist mechanism of exclusive privilege would give to the entrepreneurs a certain safety margin, because it granted them a monopoly in an urban territory for a number of years. This practice, customary in continental Europe, was transformed afterwards into a grants regime, which, in essence, produced the same effect as the privilege. In Spain, the absence of a specific legal framework for the gas industry permitted a situation of uncertainty, which caused numerous conflicts. Only until 1924 would the gas industry be considered in Spain as a public service. This paper examines the case of the growth of gas networks in Barcelona and analyzes its different stages. After a monopoly phase, the gas industry evolved into one of networks multiplicity and competition between companies. This situation was solved first, by the sharing out of the territory and later, by the unification of networks, and, therefore, by a new situation of monopoly.
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