Wealth in Catalonia and Spain, fifty years after Franco
Currently, the leading Spanish company by market capitalization, far ahead of the second, is Inditex. Its largest shareholder, Amancio Ortega, is the richest person in Spain and consistently appears on lists of the world's wealthiest individuals. He is now the ninth richest person in the world and the second richest in Europe, although at times he has even been the world's richest. Fifty years ago, Inditex didn't exist, and Amancio Ortega had no fortune whatsoever. This is the most dramatic transformation in the Spanish business world. No other fortune even comes close. The second richest, ten times smaller, belongs to his daughter. Following her are Rafael del Pino (Ferrovial) and Juan Roig (Mercadona).
Among publicly traded companies, the one with the largest market capitalization fifty years ago was, quite prominently, a monopoly of the National Telephone Company of Spain. Following in the top ten were seven banks (Central, Banesto, Bilbao, Santander, Hispano Americano, Vizcaya, and Popular Español) and two electricity companies (Iberduero, second; and Hidrola, fifth). In the next positions were four more electricity companies and another bank. Cepsa and Campsa (oil companies) were ranked 16th and 19th, respectively, and Unión Explosivos Río Tinto (UERT) was 18th. Banks, electricity companies, and monopolies (Telefónica and Campsa) constituted the corporate power.
If, on the other hand, they were ranked by revenue (sales), oil companies occupied the top five positions, followed by Ensidesa and UERT. By number of employees, Renfe was first, followed by Telefónica, Dragados y Construcciones, Seat, and Ensidesa. Next came Hunosa, Astilleros Españoles, Standard Eléctrica, Iberia, and El Corte Inglés. Of these ten companies with the most employees, more or less all were also among the ten with the highest revenue. The rankings by revenue and employees revealed the weight of industrial companies. Of all those mentioned, only Fecsa and Seat were headquartered in Catalonia.
In recent rankings, the Ibex still shows significant continuity compared to fifty years ago. Iberdrola (2nd), Santander (3rd), BBVA (4th), Endesa (8th), and Telefónica (10th) are among the top ten by market capitalization and, in fact, are the same companies or a continuation of those that were already there. But there are newcomers: Cellnex Telecom (5th), CaixaBank (6th), Amadeus IT Holding (7th), and Aena (9th): a savings bank transformed into a bank, two infrastructure companies, and a tourism and travel operator. If we look at it by employees, the top companies are Mercadona, El Corte Inglés, ACS, ONCE (the Spanish National Organization of the Blind), and Mondragón. Inditex is ninth. By revenue, Mercadona is also first, followed by the oil companies (Repsol Petróleo –refineries–, Moeve –formerly Cepsa–, another Repsol –the retailer–) and Endesa. Stellantis (automobiles) and Seat are sixth and eighth, respectively. Inditex is seventh, Iberdrola ninth, and El Corte Inglés tenth. The Catalan presence is modest, as it was fifty years ago. A large bank has appeared (CaixaBank), an electricity company has disappeared (Fecsa), and there is still one car manufacturer (Seat).
In global terms, the number of Spanish companies valuable enough to rank among the world's top one hundred, which didn't exist in 1975, is now three: Inditex, Iberdrola, and Santander.
The Spanish economy suffered greatly from the post-1975 industrial crisis, but it recovered vigorously thanks to European integration, both trade and monetary. This process, with its ups and downs, extended from Spain's entry into the European Union in 1986 until the bursting of the real estate and financial bubble in 2009. Since then, the Spanish and Catalan economies have lost momentum—like the entire European economy—but somewhat more so. The dynamism of China and emerging countries has significantly eroded the gap between Spain's GDP per capita and the global economy.
If we look at Catalonia's economic weight within Spain as a whole, the most notable feature is its stability, albeit with a downward trend. Catalan GDP represented 20% of Spain's fifty years ago, fell to 17.9% in 1985 due to the industrial crisis, and now – provisional data for 2024 – stands at 18.9%, practically the same as in 2007, just before the financial crisis and the same as 2.
Looking at the other autonomous communities, the most significant change in the last fifty years is that of Madrid, which has risen from 16% to 19.8%. Being the capital of a state that greatly increased its spending thanks to the expansion of the welfare state has particularly benefited them, as has the spillover effect of public spending on private activity. It is also worth noting that the autonomous communities that experienced stagnant population growth later (the southern ones) have also increased their share of the national GDP: Andalusia (from 12.5% to 13.3%), the Canary Islands (from 2.9% to 3.7%), and Murcia (from 2% to 2.2%). Driven more by the impact of tourism, the Balearic Islands have risen from 2.2% to 2.8%.
In per capita terms, the main beneficiaries, measured by the percentage point change relative to the national average, are: Extremadura (+19, meaning they went from 58% to 77% of the national average), Galicia (+16), Castile and León and Aragon (+11). Madrid has risen 3 points. The main losers were the Balearic Islands (-24), the Valencian Community (-15), Catalonia (-13), Cantabria (-11), Asturias (-8), and the Basque Country (-7). That is, the tourist and industrial regions. It was worse when they were both tourist and industrial, which is what has impacted Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community. If one had to assign blame, it would be clear: fiscal deficits and the production model. This is a whole other issue.