Most of the active population belonged to the primary sector; industry
was nearly non-existent, the only activity of importance was building;
referred to the tertiary sector, retailing and public services employed
a significant percentage of workers but only in the capital city.
Apart from the cattle, market fruits and vegetables from the countryside were sold in the heart of the medieval city, the Small Market has always been the centre of public and commercial life in Ávila. It was a centre which, as years went by, was extended to the Great Market, when the Wall became a tax barrier which was too burdensome for some merchants and traders .
A document signed by the Catholic Monarchs in 1494 approved the holding of the free market every Friday of the year “from dawn till dusk” in Avila. From then on, livestock cattle markets have been an important economic activity in the city, the sale of livestock included cattle, sheep, goats, horses and donkeys. There were markets in other villages too, they took place in different days of the week. Thanks to this activity people from the rural areas could trade to live.
Salaries purchasing power
The graph shows the great fall of the salaries purchasing power in four of the main economic Spanish sectors; thus, in 1954, the decrease of the metallurgy workers’ incomes were over a 70% compared with the ones in 1930
Rationing
cards:
As the goods supply was scarce after the war, rationing was introduced
to provide equal distribution to all civilians. Each family was given
"ration coupons" allowing them to purchase a certain amount
of a product each month. The family ration cards were replaced by individual
ones several years later, however it was very common not to inform the
authorities when somebody died or if a family member moved to another
place and to continue using their ration card. Depending on the needs
and difficulties, the cards were classified in three categories, surprisingly
most of the population tried to be declared as if they belonged to the
lower class .There were also tobacco ration cards. The ration cards allowed
people to go to shops and buy the goods, the table below shows the products
included in an individual ration card and the corresponding prices.
The daily bread ration was 150 grams for the first and second class families and 300 grams for third class, both 0,30 pesetas/loaf. Shortages encouraged people to be inventive and food substitutes were frequent (e.g. chicory or toasted barley instead of coffee) and dried potatoes leaves were used as tobacco.
Tourism:
During the 60s Spain began to see that tourism was a way of developing its economy more rapidly. Spain needed foreign currency and tourists would bring this; the figures increased from 4,194 in 1959 to 21,682 ten years later. Tourists were attracted by the weather, the beautiful beaches and the food; the growth of cheaper air travel encouraged the wealthier northern Europeans to visit our country. As a strategy to promote our country the government invited known people to visit us, furthermore the tourism exchange rate was created to be applied to the foreigner. However the Spain known by the tourists was quite limited, beach resorts received most of the visitors while huge parts of the territory remained unknown. During those years tourism in Avila was based mainly on religious or cultural activities; the local papers reported on 1957:
"Tourism, an income
source for city
During 1956, Avila was visited by nearly 40,000 people, a great increase
in the number of last year tourists.
In 1956, 3 million tourist visited Spain, a similar amount is expected
this year."
How did our grandparents cope with their difficulties?
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