Franco’s Spain: Autarky, Rationing, and Opposition (1939-1951)
Economic Self-Sufficiency and Rationing (1939-1951)
The Franco regime’s initial economic objective was self-sufficiency (autarky). This involved:
- State Control of Trade: Regulation of foreign trade, with the state handling imports and exports, prioritizing essential goods. This led to increased costs and shortages of consumer goods, raw materials, and electricity, significantly impacting industrial production.
- Industrial Promotion: Encouraging strategic industries through nationalization and public sector development. Key initiatives included the creation of RENFE (1941), Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España (1945), and the Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI) in 1941, which spawned companies like Iberia (1943), Banco Exterior de España (1943), Endesa (1944), Enher (1946), ENSIDESA (1949), and SEAT (1950).
- Agricultural Regulation: State control over agricultural production, marketing, and pricing. Low official prices led to decreased production and productivity, resulting in economic stagnation and widening welfare disparities with Western European countries.
State control forced farmers to sell at regulated prices, causing food shortages and necessitating rationing of essential products via ration cards until 1952. This fueled a black market where prices were 3-4 times higher. The population’s standard of living declined due to inflation and low wages. Hunger, cold, inadequate housing, and diseases like cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis became widespread. Life expectancy in 1945 was just 47 for men and 53 for women.
Opposition, Exile, and Resistance
At the end of the Civil War, nearly 450,000 Republicans fled Spain, going to France, North Africa, or other Mediterranean ports. Around 50,000 Catalans were among the exiles. This exodus resulted in a significant loss of political, intellectual, professional, artistic, and scientific figures, impacting Spain’s post-war cultural output.
A Spanish emigrant community formed in France. During the German occupation, some were persecuted and deported to Nazi concentration camps, leading many to seek refuge in Britain and America. About 3,000 Spanish children were sent to the Soviet Union in 1937.
Republican political institutions and the Catalan and Basque governments continued to operate in exile. After the death of President Lluís Companys, Josep Irla assumed the presidency of the Generalitat in exile. In 1954, Josep Tarradellas was elected as the new president of the Generalitat in exile.
Opposition to early Francoism can be divided into three stages:
- 1939-1944: Rebuilding political and union organizations, marked by guerrilla activity (resistance fighters) and culminating in the Aran Valley invasion in October 1944. Guerrilla activity persisted until 1952.
- 1945-1947: Hopes for Allied intervention led to the creation of unified opposition platforms aiming to restore republican legality. However, divisions emerged. Some factions of the PSOE and CNT considered immediate restoration unfeasible and leaned towards the monarchist regime, while others continued to defend the Republic.
- 1948-1951: Demoralization due to the dictatorship’s consolidation. International support for overthrowing Franco waned, and guerrilla or popular mobilization seemed unlikely. Many organizations were decimated or weakened by internal conflicts.
By the late 1940s, popular protests, led by the working class, began to emerge. Labor disputes occurred in the textile and metallurgy sectors from 1945 onwards. The 1951 Barcelona tram strike, triggered by rising prices, was a significant protest. In 1956-1957, the first student uprisings against Franco occurred at the universities of Madrid and Barcelona, marking the start of a major student movement.