The stamp of slavery on nineteenth-century Spanish urbanism

Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 1 Introduction In 1994, UNESCO presented the flagship project “Slave Route Project: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage”in Ouidah, Benin. Spain was included, since nearly two million enslaved Africans disembarked in peninsular ports between 1450 and 1750, while more than one million went directly to its American colonies between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries. 1 One of this project’s objectives was straightforward: to honestly address –instead of ignoring –a recent and painful past that could only provoke moral condemnation so as to generate cathartic and liberating values. 2 Indeed, the imprint left by slavery and the slave trade on Spanish culture, society, and economy has been disregarded or downplayed in Spanish collective memory. And although there is an ample and important bibliography on the ways in which slavery and the slave trade informed different aspects of Spanish peninsular society, 3 the traces left by slavery in the peninsula after the trade was illegalized between 1817 and 1867 remain understudied. In these pages, I sketch the role played in the Spanish economy by the fortunes accumulated in activities closely intertwined with slavery and/or the slave trade in Cuba. 4 At the end of the 1840s, such capital was being transferred to the United States, Great Britain, France, and, of course, Spain. 5 Ángel Bahamonde and José Cayuela pub- Note: This article is part of the research project PID2019-105204GB-I00 “Memoria y lugares de la esclavitud y el comercio de esclavos en la España contemporánea.” These numbers were gathered from data available in Slave Voyages, slavevoyages.org [accessed 29.01.2021]. To these must be added all those Africans who perished at sea, whether in the middle passage or the final passage. Unesco, Legados de la esclavitud. Una guía para la administración de sitios e itinerarios de memoria (Paris: Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la ciencia y la Cultura, 2019), https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000369705 [accessed 28.02.2023]: 3. Alessando Stella, Histoires d’esclaves dans la péninsule ibérique (Paris: EFESS, 2000); Rafael Pérez García and Manuel F. Fernández Chávez, eds., La esclavitud en el sur de la península ibérica, siglos XV al XVII (Madrid: Catarata, 2021). For a general summary on this subject, see Lizbeth Chaviano Pérez, “Las huellas de la esclavitud en Madrid a través de los senadores, s. XIX,”in Del olvido a la memoria. La esclavitud en la España contemporánea (Barcelona: Icaria, 2022): 39–62. Ángel Bahamonde and José Cayuela, Hacer las Américas. Las élites coloniales españolas en el siglo XIX (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1992): 53. Open Access. © 2023 the author(s), published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111331492-006 lished a study in 1992 in which they revealed the magnitude of the capital transferred to Spain, estimating the patrimony of Spanish-Cuban elites between 1840 and 1890 at 2,224,856,028 reales de vellón. In this article, I focus my attention on the capital that came from Cuba and was invested in the urban real estate sector. At least 501,700,758 reales de vellón, that is, nearly 25% of the capital of Spanish-Cuban elites, were invested in this sector, the greater part (477,199,579) between 1869 and 1890. 6 Since 1837, peninsular Spain –where the liberal regime was increasingly consolidated and free labor was the norm –coexisted with, and even depended upon, overseas Spanish territories (Cuba and Puerto Rico), where the work and illicit commerce of enslaved Africans continued generating enormous benefits. The adoption of a bicameral parliamentary system (Cortes Generales and senate) opened attractive opportunities for men with close links to slavery and the slave trade who decided to relocate to the peninsula. These men and women, who had gone to the Americas penniless or not particularly affluent only to return wealthy, were referred to in the peninsula as indianos. They could, and did, defend their political and economic interests more efficiently from the center of political power, while increasing the profitability of their capital by investing it in promising sectors of the Spanish economy. 2 Madrid, Political Center I will begin with Madrid, a city in which the traces left by the enslaved and the slave trade between the sixteenth and the early nineteenth century were, almost without exception, buried under the spirit of renovation that characterized Madrid’surbanism during the second half of the nineteenth century. 7 This happened with the Calle de los negros (street of the blacks), whose existence was documented until 1861, and the site of the Arca de las negras (ark of the black women), both of which disappeared due to the transformations undergone by the city, 8 aprocessofurbanrenewalin which capital accumulated in Cuba was skillfully invested. Of the men who invested this capital, I have chosen to focus on the indianos who were designated senators throughout the period in question. To be eligible for a senate seat, an adult Spanish male had to be able to demonstrate a particular annual income –the precise amount varied according to the constitution at Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 148. José Miguel López García, La esclavitud a finales del Antiguo Régimen. Madrid, 1701–1837. De moros de presa a negros de nación (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2020). Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, El antiguo Madrid, paseos histórico–anecdóticos por las calles y casas de esta villa (Madrid: Establecimiento tipográfico de Don F. de P. Mellado, 1861): 283; Ángel Fernández de los Ríos, Guía de Madrid, manual del madrileño y del forastero (Madrid: Oficinas de la ilustración española y americana, 1878): 180. 204 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez the time (1837; 1845; 1856) –or have a noble title. 9 And the documentation presented by indianos to prove that they fulfilled these requisites is an excellent source for assessing their involvement in the evolution of Madrid’surbandevelopment.Itwasnecessaryfor senators to acquire a home in Madrid in order to exercise their senatorial duties during the parliamentary sessions, and many resided in the city seasonally while many others moved permanently. However, the volume and variety of their real estate investments demonstrate that they went above and beyond their own private residence. Real estate investments in Madrid, the seat of the crown, the Cortes, and the senate, were a very profitable enterprise, particularly after the disentailment carried out after the 1840s. 10 The most significant of these senators, in so far as their relationship with the slave trade and slavery as well as urban real estate development, were the counts of Bagaes and Vega Mar 11 and the marquises of Manzanedo, Comillas, and Vinent, all of whom amassed great fortunes in Cuba, enough to allow them to obtain noble titles. They were not the only ones to follow such a path, but instead are only the starting point of an ongoing and more ample research project that will incorporate new cases. One of the most interesting cases is that of Manuel Pastor Fuentes (San Fernando, Cádiz, 1796 –Madrid, 1858), who received his title of count of Bagaes in 1846. A retired infantry colonel, Pastor Fuentes had been a captain of the Royal Engineering Corps and an inspector of the Cuban military fortifications, as well as technical advisor to a large public works project in Cuba and personal friend of the island’s Captain General Miguel Tacón. 12 In the list of properties he submitted to demonstrate that he had the requisite patrimony to be a senator, he mentioned several properties in Cuba, among them, the San José de los Bagaes sugar mill, the hacienda Lomas de Jagüeyes, and the Cubatey paddock. Pastor Fuentes was one of the shrewdest entrepreneurs in the colony, and he “placed his great knowledge and technical capacity in the service of the sugar industry, scientifically developing the political and financial aspects of the slave trade.”Together with his partner and compatriot Antonio Parejo, they were the great financiers of the slave trade in the 1840s. In 1849, Gaspar Betancourt Cisnero accused The constitution of 1837 fixed the minimum income at 30,000 reales de vellón (7,500 pesetas); the 1845 charter at 30,000 to 60,000 reales, depending on the category. The constitution of 1876 fixed it at 60,000 pesetas. The 1869 charter did not set a minimum income, declaring eligible instead the top 50 contributors of the territorial tax as well as the top 20 contributors of industrial and commercial subsidies. All of these constitutional texts are available at: https://www.senado.es/web/conocersenado/sen adohistoria/periodosconstitucionales/index.html [accessed 28.02.2023].  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 65–66; Francisco Calvo Serraller, “El urbanismo de los ensanches: La transformación de Madrid durante el siglo XIX,”Revista Arquitectura 217 (1979): 52–58.  The documentation and present sources write both Vega Mar and Vegamar, but I use the former because that is how it appears in his signature.  Juan Pérez de la Riva, Correspondencia reservada del capitán general don Miguel Tacón, 1834–1836 con el Gobierno de Madrid. Introducción, notas y bibliografía (La Habana: Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, 1963): 330. The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 205 him of being the brain behind the “slave-trading company”in which Queen Isabella II herself had investments. 13 According to Pastor Fuentes’s will, moreover, he and his partner Francisco de Paula Retortillo each had half of 25,000 pesos in stocks in a company that belonged to Juan José Zangróniz, a notorious slave trader. 14 In sum, the count of Bagaes’s fortune was firmly rooted in the enslavement and trade of African – and Yucatec –men and women. 15 In 1848, the count of Bagaes left Cuba for Madrid, where he invested part of his capital in the city’s booming urban development market. In 1853, he was named senator. The commercial society he had with Paula Retortillo owned properties in Seville and a house in Calle Fomento, near the senate in Madrid, as well as a large lot near the Cortes. This comprised much of what is today the Paseo del Prado (Trajineros) and the streets of el Sordo (Zorrilla), Marqués de Cubas (Turco), and los Madrazos (Greda), and the two partners began to build houses in this space in 1854. 16 A year later, the count of Bagaes, the duke of Villahermosa, and the marquis of Alcañices, who also owned properties in this area, presented a project to reform and improve the Paseo del Prado between the Carrera de San Jerónimo and the street of Alcalá. 17 After 1850, the congressional district became one of the key areas for the city’s growth, which meant that such investments had been wisely calculated and allowed Pastor Fuentes to recoup in a few years the capital that he had invested. 18  Pérez de la Riva, Correspondencia reservada: 330.  Archivo Histórico de Protocolos de Madrid (AHPM), Vicente Castañeda Diana, tomo 27005, folios 358r–365r. Testamento Manuel Pastor, Madrid, 12 de julio de 1856. Bagaes named his nephew Bernardo Losada Pastor heir to his title. Losada Pastor was later designated a senator.  Manuel Barcia Paz, “‘Fully Capable of Any Iniquity’: The Atlantic Human Trafficking Network of the Zangroniz Family,”The Americas 73, no. 3 (2016): 303–24.  “El conde de Bagaes y D. Francisco de Paula Retortillo proponiendo secundar el proyecto de apertura de calle que ha de atravesar el terreno de su propiedad que lo es parte del jardín y cocheras que fue del Excmo. Sr. Duque de Villahermosa y para continuación de la calle del Sordo,”in Biblioteca Digital Memoria de Madrid 4–100–129, http://www.memoriademadrid.es/buscador.php? accion=VerFicha&id=351445&num_id =1&num_total=1 [accessed 28.02.2023].  The reforms included broadening the street, planting more resistant and leafy trees, improving illumination, and creating a boulevard. “Los Sres. Duque de Villahermosa y Conde de Bagaes. Proyecto de reforma de la calle de Tragineros, en el Prado,”in Biblioteca Digital Memoria de Madrid,4–226-20, http://www.memoriademadrid.es/buscador.php?accion=VerFicha&id=363280&num_id=9&num_total=9 [accessed 28.02.2023]; Soto Ángela Alcaraz, “Paisaje urbano del Paseo de prado: desde la reforma hasta la desaparición del Retiro (1767–1865)”(PhD diss., Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 1995).  Ildefonso Lavín Ruíz, who was linked with sugar mills on Cuba, and who will be investigated further when looking at the Sevillian case, also purchased a house on the Carrera de San Jeronimo. In 1857, José Xifré Downing, son of José Xifré i Casas, a renowned slave–trader, built a Neo Mudejar palace on the corner of Lope de Vega and Paseo del Prado, which was later demolished. “D. José Xifré, licencia para construir en el solar de la calle Trajineros, con vuelta a Lope de Vega, denominado Huerta de Jesús”in Biblioteca Digital Memoria de Madrid,4–195–5, http://www.memoriademadrid.es/ buscador.php?accion=VerFicha&id=363278&num_id=2&num_total=2 [accessed 28.02.2023]. 206 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez Carlos Drake y Núñez, count of Vega Mar (Havana, 1802 –Madrid, 1872), amassed a fortune in Cuba whose value was estimated at around ten million reales, and which was also tied to the island’s slave economy (haciendas, sugar mills, and other enterprises that used slave labor). 19 He settled permanently in Madrid in 1847, the year in which he obtained the title of count of Vega Mar. In 1859, he was named senator for life. 20 His investments in Spain included financial, industrial, urban, and rural real estate operations, as well as investments in the maritime sector and salt mines. 21 The count of Vega Mar’s initial real estate ventures in Madrid were modest: a mere 763,000 reales invested in the Ensanche in 1847. But by 1872 they had grown spectacularly, reaching 8,716,236 reales, nearly a third of the 30 million that constituted his fortune. He had a rentier vocation, as seen by the accumulation of urban real estate that he leased to receive an income. 22 Going back to his real estate purchases in 1847 in the Ensanche, Drake y Núñez’s investments were centered in Chamberí, where he had two lots, one close to the neighborhood church and another of 8,016 feet. 23 It is possible that he later built on this lot the house documented as Antiguo Paseo de la Habana 5 (present-day Arapiles), whose rental value in 1858 was 8,760 reales. 24 He acquired more property in 1855 in the same neighborhood, in front of the old Fábrica de Tapices (tapestry factory) and outside the Puerta de Santa Barbara, for 115,662 reales, 25 probably the house of the Paseo de Santa Engracia, pointed out by Bahamonde and Cayuela as being acquired between 1846 and 1847. 26 But the most important acquisitions were those in the suburban area behind the Buenavista Palace, which in 1847 became the seat of the Ministry of War. In April, 1850, Drake y Núñez purchased a lot and some houses in the streets of Barquillo, Sauco,  The cost of the slaves employed in the cleaning and maintenance of the port of Havana was estimated at 100,000 reales, Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 189.  Archivo del Senado (AdS), Leg. 511/ R.D. 24–09-1859.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 197–98.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 189, 194–95.  Archivo del Senado, “Rentas,”in Expediente personal del Senador vitalicio D. Carlos Drake y Núñez del Castillo, Conde de Vega Mar, 1847–1859, https://www.senado.es/cgi-bin/verdocweb?tipo_bd=HI20&P WIndice=67&Signatura=HIS-0501–03&Contenido=4 [accessed 28.02.2023].  This house was between Plaza de Quevedo and the plaza of the church of Chamberí. “Rentas,”Expediente personal del Senador vitalicio D. Carlos Drake y Núñez del Castillo.  “Rentas,”Expediente personal del Senador vitalicio D. Carlos Drake y Núñez del Castillo.  The properties mentioned in “Rentas,”Expediente personal del Senador vitalicio D. Carlos Drake y Núñez del Castillo, are Paseo de La Habana 5, built (n.d.) on land purchased in 1846; Almirante 4 vuelta a Salesas, Sauco 3; and Barquillo 14, all built in 1846; Sauco 8, 10, and 12, all built in 1853; Sauco 6, built in 1854; and a house outside the Puerta de Santa Bárbara purchased in 1855.Bahamonde and Cayuela relate the following purchases: between 1846–1847, two buildings in Santa Engracia (numbers unspecified) on Paseo de La Habana and Santísima Trinidad, and two more in Paseo del Obelisco; in 1850: Barquillo 14, Sauco 3, and Almirante 4; in 1867: Alcalá 3. And, acquired via permutation in 1870: Soldado s/n (Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 195). The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 207 Salesas, and Almirante on block number 285. 27 This operation cost him 280,000 reales, of which he paid the first 160,000 in cash. On the corner of Barquillo and Sauco he built a house to let, 28 but he also built a house destined to be his own residence, “elegant and modern”and considered one of the city’s“most important and in good taste.”Nearby, in Alcala 3, he purchased a building that he completely renovated. 29 His investments in the area contributed to the city’s urbanization and growth, as well as its toponymy, as evinced by the streets Vegamar and Paseo de La Habana. 30 Another ennobled indiano who entered the senate and invested in Madrid’s urban growth was Manuel Manzanedo y González, duke of Santoña and marquis of Manzanedo (Santoña, 1803–Santoña, 1882). 31 He migrated to Cuba and amassed a great fortune participating in various enterprises, including most especially the illegal trade of enslaved Africans. 32 In 1845 he moved to Cadiz, but soon he relocated to Madrid, where he was designated a senator in 1864. He invested his fortune, estimated at 12,500,000 pesetas, in many ventures, including Spanish, German, and French banking; insurance; ship construction; the textile industry; and railroads. 33 Like the count of Vega Mar, his first investments in Madrid real estate were modest, accounting for only 3% of his assets. However, by 1879, when he was the richest man of his time, his urban properties in Madrid and its Ensanche were valued at 66,477,154 reales, approximately 37% of his estate. 34 In 1858, when the Puerta del Sol was being reformed, he purchased the famous Casas Cordero or Casas del Maragato from Santiago Alonso Cordero, a 58,294 square-feet building delimited by the Espartero, Mayo Piqueras 2021, 190–196; Portell 2004, 89r, Pontejos, and Correos streets, for 3,750,000 pesetas, of which 3,250,000 were paid in cash. 35 This outlay did not signify much for a man who only three years later was acknowledged as one of the provin-  On this land, the new houses Barquillo nuevo 14, Sauco nuevo 3, and Almirante y Salesa nuevo 4. “Rentas,”Expediente personal del Senador vitalicio D. Carlos Drake y Núñez del Castillo.  “Licencia al Conde de Vega Mar para edificar en la calle Barquillo, no. 14 c/v a la del Sauco no. 1, demoliendo la parte construida (1850–1851),”in Biblioteca Digital Memoria de Madrid,4–100-129, http://www.memoriademadrid.es/buscador.php?accion=VerFicha&id=342323&num_id=1&num_total=2 [accessed 28.02.2023].  Mesonero 1861, El antiguo Madrid: 254.  Rubén Pallol Trigueros, “El Madrid moderno: Chamberí (el Ensanche Norte), símbolo del nacimiento de una nueva capital, 1860–1931”(PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2011): 45.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 201–22.  José Antonio Piqueras, Negreros. Españoles en el tráfico y en los capitales esclavistas (Madrid: Catarata, 2021): 190–96; Rafael Portell Pasamonte, “Don Juan Manuel Manzanedo y González, I duque de Santoña. I marqués de Manzanedo,”in Monte Buciero 10 (2004): 87–102, 89.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 201–22.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 207.  Archivo del Senado, Certificación del Registro de la propiedad de Madrid, https://www.senado.es/ cgi-bin/verdocweb?tipo_bd=HI20&PWIndice=65&Signatura=HIS-0432-04&Contenido=5 [accessed 28.02. 2023]. 208 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez ce’s top 50 taxpayers. 36 Over the next few years, he purchased four properties in Puerta del Sol and raised several buildings that gave said square an appearance very close to what it has today. He also bought the house on Alcala 12, with access to the Puerta del Sol and the Carrera de San Geronimo, which he destined as his residence. In 1874, he bought the Goyeneche Palace from the marquis of Isasi, on the corner of Principe and Huertas streets, and turned it into his new residence. 37 He purchased two other properties on Magdalena and Cañizares streets, and another in Valverde, Concepción Jerónima, Lope de Vega, and Juanelo. But he also invested in real estate in the Ensanche, as shown by two purchases on Rey Francisco street and one on each of the following streets: Ferraz, Quintana, Mendizábal, and Montalbán, as well as in the outskirts of Puerta de Atocha and in la Guindalera. He was defined as “a landlord in the full sense of the word”concerned about obtaining full payments from his tenants. 38 Manzanedo’s urban real estate investments centered on Puerta del Sol and the nearby area of Alcala street, but he also paid attention to the northern and southern Ensanches and the Arguelles and Retiro neighborhoods. 39 Antonio Vinent y Vives, marquis of Vinent (Mahón, 1809 –Madrid, 1887), belonged to the Spanish navy before becoming a merchant shipmaster. From 1830, he developed close ties to the trafficking of human beings, alongside his brothers José and Francisco, who owned a slave factory on the Guinean island of Corisco, which was destroyed by the British in 1840. 40 His links with the trade were still evidenced in 1875, when an inventory of his properties showed that on two of his several houses had a mortgage loan of 485,313 pesetas in favor of the renowned slave-trader Julián de Zulueta. 41 In 1844, Vinent left Cuba for Cadiz, and in 1860 he settled in Madrid, where he registered himself as a merchant and a banker. In 1862, he was elected to the Cortes as representative (diputado) of the province of Segura de la Sierra (in Jaen). 42 In 1864, he was designated senator, and in 1868 Queen Isabella II granted him the title of marquis of Vinent. His pathway was therefore different from those discussed previously, for he began his parliamentary career as a wealthy “commoner”  Archivo del Senado, Certificación de la Diputación provincial de Madrid, 31.03.1871, https://www.sen ado.es/cgi-bin/verdocweb?tipo_bd=HI20&PWIndice=65&Signatura=HIS-0432-04&Contenido=10 [accessed 28.02.2023].  Portell, “Don Juan Manuel Manzanedo y González”: 96.  Bahamonde and Cayuela, Hacer las Américas: 208–9.  Borja Carballo Barral, Rubén Pallol Trigueros and Fernando Vicente Albarrán, El Ensanche de Madrid. Historia de una capital (Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2008); Calvo, “El urbanismo de los ensanches.”  Piqueras, Negreros: 185; Gustau Nerín Abad, Traficants d’ànimes: els negrers espanyols a l’Àfrica (Barcelona: Pòrtic, 2015): 224.  AHPM, Mariano García Sancha, 30996, fol. 2303 onwards, 15.04.1875 (henceforth, AHPM, Mariano García Sancha). I thank Martín Rodrigo Alharilla for providing me with this information.  Archivo del Senado, Certificación de haber sido elegido Diputado Provincial, 11.01.1865, https://www. senado.es/cgi-bin/verdocweb?tipo_bd=HI20&PWIndice=67&Signatura=HIS-0524-01&Contenido=4 [accessed 28.02.2023]. The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 209 and only later entered the nobility. According to the 1875 inventory, his capital surpassed 6 million pesetas. 43 The estate described was diverse: real estate; jewels; cattle; lumber exploitation; railroad stocks and stocks in the Bank of Castilla and the Sociedad del Timbre; and participation in the Empréstito Nacional and the Spanish syndicates created by the Bank of Paris and the Bank of the Netherlands. What matters to us is that 16% of his capital was invested in urban real estate in Madrid, specifically two houses on the Plaza de las Cortes, on the corner of Florín (Fernánflor) and Turco (Marqués de Cubas) streets, valued at 1,035,011 pesetas. This area’s land and property values were rising steadily, as we have seen with the investments of the marquis of Bagaes. As a member of Madrid’sCompañía para la Venta y Explotación de Inmuebles (Society for the Sale and Exploitation of Real Estate), Vinent y Vives also invested in the eastern Ensanche. Antonio López y López, marquis of Comillas (Comillas, 1817 –Barcelona, 1883), was also renowned for his ties to the Cuban slave economy and his participation in the slave trade. Upon his return to Spain, he settled in Barcelona, and was designated senator in 1881. His biography has been addressed in several interesting studies: 44 here, we will specifically look at his investments in Madrid’s urban sector, which, although much less prominent than they were in Barcelona, were substantial nonetheless. López y López’s investments in Madrid were centered on the eastern Ensanche, the present-day district of Salamanca. In 1872, he participated with 125,000 pesetas in the creation of a society for the construction of a new bullring (the Fuente del Berro bullring, which replaced the old Puerta de Alcala ring), an amount that represented 6.6% of the initiative’s capital. 45 He was also a partner in the aforementioned Compañía para la Venta y Explotación de Inmuebles, which invested heavily in the Salamanca neighborhood. When the partnership was liquidated, he received several properties in Claudio Coello street valued at 329,650 pesetas: number 3, valued at 79,252.94 pesetas, and number 15, valued at 72,462.17 pesetas, were in blocks 208 and 209, respectively. 46 Number 38 had a land lot annexed to it. 47 The postmortem inventory of the marquis’s properties in 1883 shows that the liquidation of the Compañía para la Venta y Explotación de Inmuebles included two lots in this same neighborhood. They were in blocks 230 and 230ª, known as Plaza de Toros because they had housed the aforementioned Puerta de Alcala bullring, demolished in 1874. The perimeter of the first  It was specifically 6,223,393 pesetas. AHPM, Mariano García Sancha.  Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, Un hombre, mil negocios: la controvertida historia de Antonio López, marqués de Comillas (Barcelona: Ariel, 2021).  Rodrigo, Un hombre, mil negocios: 386.  Archivo del Senado, “Certificación del Registro de la Propiedad de Madrid, 25.01.1882,”in Expediente personal del senador por derecho propio, Marqués de Comillas, D. Antonio López y López, 1882–1883, https://www.senado.es/cgi-bin/verdocweb?tipo_bd=HI20&PWIndice=5&Signatura=HIS-0122-06&Contenido=4 [accessed 28.02.2023].  Registro de la Propiedad, Finca 1.354, folio 59, tomo 681 and Finca 1.450, folio 164v, tomo 681; Rodrigo, Un hombre, mil negocios: 377. 210 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez was 1410.3 meters, while the second lot, 789.2 meters, was “delimited by the streets of Claudio Coello, Columela, Lagasca and Conde de Aranda.” 48 Like the marquis’s real estate investment activities in Barcelona, those in Madrid had a speculative character: he bought land at a low price to resell at a higher price. 3 Barcelona, Economic Center I will not analyze the Barcelona case in detail, because it has a substantial and solid bibliography regarding the return of American capital, especially of Cuban origin, 49 and investment in a city in the midst of expansion. 50 With few exceptions, the investments of returnees from Cuba between 1837 and 1862 were concentrated in the first Ensanche, around Pla de Palau Square. After 1862, the lion’s share of these investments went to the Eixample. Among the construction activity carried out in the Ensanche, that of José Xifré i Casasisworthnoting.In1837,hebuilta“true residential complex”composed of more than 11 buildings on land freed up by the demolition of the sea wall. One of the most remarkable was the Xifré house, known for its porticos (the Porxos d’en Xifré). He also purchased three other properties inside the walls. The complex was appraised upon his death at 1,736,000 pesetas. 51 The brothers Alejo and Manuel Vidal Quadras also invested in this area, raising in 1844 the two buildings that stand alongside the Xifré house. They also invested in Mendizábal, Cristina, and Riera de San Joan streets, and later acquired lots in the Eixample. 52 Salvador Samà, marquis of Marianao, invested in the lands that  Rodrigo, Un hombre, mil negocios: 363–64.  Angels Solà Parera. “Os ‘americanos’cataláns e o seu impacto económico en Cataluña ó longo do século XIX,”Estudios migratorios 11–12 (2001): 141–48; Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, “Barcelona, capital del retorn,”in Les Bases Colonials de Barcelona,1765–1968, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Aharilla (Barcelona: Museu d’Història de Barcelona, 2014): 79–92; Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, “El retorn americà: families, capitals, poder,”Barcelona Quaderns d’Història 16 (2010): 75–93; Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, “Travase de capitales antillanes: azúcar y transformación urbana en el siglo XIX,”in Más allá del azúcar. Política, diversificación y prácticas económicas en Cuba, 1878–1930, ed. Antonio Santamaria and Consuelo Naranjo (Aranjuez: Doce Calles, 2009): 127–58; Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, “Una saga de banqueros: la familia Vidal Quadras,”Historia Social 64 (2009): 99–119; Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, Indians a Catalunya. Capitals Cubans en L’economia Catalana (Barcelona: Fundació Noguera, 2007).  Xavier Tafunell, La construcción de la Barcelona moderna. La industria de l’habitatge entre 1854 i 1897 (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1994); Manuel de Solà-Morales, El Ensanche de Barcelona (Barcelona: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, 1978).  José María Ramón de San Pedro, José Xifré Casas. Industrial, naviero, comerciante, banquero y benefactor. Historia de un indiano catalán (1777–1856) (Barcelona: Banco Atlántico, 1956).  Rodrigo, Un hombre, mil negocios:89–91; Martin Rodrigo y Alharilla and Lluís Castañeda Peirón, “Los Vidal Quadras: familia y negocios, 1833–1871,”Barcelona Quaderns d’Història 11 (2004): 115–44. The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 211 25,585,116 reales, to be exact. In September 1866, before leaving Santiago for Seville, he acquired the palace home of the duke of Medina Sidonia, valued at 3,400,000 reales, to serve as his large family’s main residence. He also purchased three houses on Marina street, where he built residences with their attached storehouses, and another two on Capuchinas street. All five were valued at 960,000 reales. His real estate investments were modest in comparison with his investment in rural properties and the modernizing reforms that he carried out in some of them, such as in Esperanza Cubana, where he built a modern oil factory. However, his urban investments were still significant. 84 The Cadiz-born Manuel Pastor, count of Bagaes, also made important urban real estate investments in Seville, even though he settled in Madrid. In 1852, he and Francisco de Paula Retortillo formed a society with the brothers Manuel and José Burín Marquis, who had also made their fortunes in Cuba. They purchased the lands of the old convents of San Francisco and San Buenaventura that the city government auctioned off to create the Plaza Nueva. In 1855, after having built a total of 41 houses, the society dissolved. 85 The will left by Pastor in 1856 is unclear regarding his properties, for it speaks of ten houses built in Seville with his partner Retortillo, “half of which was at our expense.”One of these houses is described as belonging to him. Another –on the corner of Colcheros (present-day Tetuan) and Catalanes –he obtained in exchange for a lot that he had in “the thirty in representation of which the company that is building this plaza according to the contract signed with the excellent government of that city.” The will mentions another house on Bilbao street. It is unclear until when he retained the property, and whether he rented them or sold them, but it is possible that he rented them, for, although this would not generate large returns, they were a guaranteed source of income given the lack of housing that afflicted the city. 86 6 Conclusions The counts of Bagaes and Vega Mar and the marquises of Manzanedo, Vinent, and Comillas were not the most important investors in the urban reforms that transformed Madrid in the mid-nineteenth century, but they had a good nose for the areas in which to acquire real estate. The count of Bagaes, the marquis of Vinent, and the marquis of Manzanedo invested in the city center, in the area bounded by the Paseo  María José Álvarez Pantoja, “Capitales americanos en la Sevilla del siglo XIX: El Marqués de Palomares del Duero,”in V Jornadas de Andalucía y América (T.I. Seville: CSIC-Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos, 1986): 350–68.  González, “Los Marañón”; Espiazu, La Casa de la Moneda de Sevilla.  AHPM, Vicente Castañeda Diana, tomo 27005, folios 358r–365r. Testamento Manuel Pastor, Madrid, 12 de julio de 1856. 218 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez del Prado, the Carrera de San Jerónimo, the Puerta del Sol, and Alcalá street, precisely when it was about to experience intense urbanization. Their purchases had financial motivations and did not respond simply to a desire to reside in this prestigious area. The marquis of Manzanedo invested mostly in Puerta del Sol and the streets of Alcalá and del Príncipe, reinforcing the attention that all these individuals paid to the central district. The count of Vega Mar also seemed to sense the urban potential of the area behind the Palacio de Buenavista (seat of the Ministry of War), but he also invested in the northern Ensanche, especially in Chamberí and nearby areas. The marquis of Vinent invested in the eastern Ensanche. However, it was the marquis of Comillas who invested most heavily in the Ensanche, especially the eastern Ensanche. Probably encouraged by his affairs with the marquis of Salamanca, he devoted his capital to purchases in the area of Salamanca. He was interested in speculation, buying cheaply and selling dearly when the occasion presented itself. He did not, like the count of Bagaes and the marquises of Vega Mar and Manzanedo, show any interest in erecting buildings for rent. A similar process characterized indiano activity in Barcelona, a city in which indianos’initial investments were concentrated around the Pla de Palau, Ample, and the Ramblas. He later directed his investments, of a speculative character, to the city’s Eixample. In both cities, it was the marquis of Comillas who led the change from one area to another. More studies need to be carried out before we can compare Madrid and Barcelona with what took place elsewhere in the Spanish peninsula, for this paper has only presented snippets of cases on the Cantabrian coast and the Andalusian cities that were the main bridgeheads of the old Carrera de Indias, Seville and Cadiz. In any case, it is clear that part of the fortunes amassed on Cuba and the African coasts, and therefore closely linked to slavery and the slave trade, was invested in important urban reforms –in varying percentages –in Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities, starting in the mid-nineteenth century. It is still necessary to study what happened in other Spanish locales. Bibliography Álvarez Pantoja, María José. “Capitales americanos en la Sevilla del siglo XIX: El Marqués de Palomares del Duero,”in V Jornadas de Andalucía y América (T.I. Seville: CSIC-Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos, 1986): 350–68. Amores Carredano, Juan Bosco, and Jon Ander Ramos Martínez. “El liderazgo de Manuel Calvo y Aguirre: entre el Partido Español y los vasco-navarros de Cuba,”in Vascos en Cuba, ed. William C. Douglass (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Presidencia del Gobierno Vasco, 2015): 55–68. Apaolaza Avila, Urko. “Un análisis sobre la historiografía en torno al alavés Julián de Zulueta y Amondo,” Sancho el Sabio 18 (2003): 121–40. Aramburu-Zabala, Miguel Ángel, and Consuelo Soldevila. Arquitectura de los indianos en Cantabria (siglos XVI–XX). Patrimonio de la emigración trasatlántica (Santander: Ediciones de Librería Estudio, 2007). The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 219 Astarloa Villena, Francisco. “El Senado en la historia constitucional de España,”Corts: Anuario de derecho parlamentario 5 (1998): 169–84. Bahamonde, Ángel, and José Cayuela. Hacer las Américas. Las élites coloniales españolas en el siglo XIX (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1992). Barcia Paz, Manuel. “‘Fully Capable of Any Iniquity’: The Atlantic Human Trafficking Network of the Zangroniz Family,”The Americas 73, no. 3 (2016): 303–24. Biblioteca-Museu Balaguer. ‘Americanos’‘Indianos’. Arquitectura i urbanisme al Garraf, Penedés i Tarragonés (Baix Gaià), segles XVIII–XX (Vilanova i la Geltrú: Biblioteca Museu Balaguer, 1990). Calvo Serraller, Francisco. “El urbanismo de los ensanches: La transformación de Madrid durante el siglo XIX,”Revista Arquitectura 217 (1979): 52–58. Carballo Barral, Borja, Rubén Pallol Trigueros and Fernando Vicente Albarrán. El Ensanche de Madrid. Historia de una capital (Madrid: Editorial Complutense, 2008). Carmona Badia, Xan. “Los indianos y la cuestión industrial en Galicia en el siglo XIX,”Indianos. Monografías de los Cuadernos del Norte 2 (1982): 45–49. Castañeda Peirón, Lluís, and Martin Rodrigo y Alharilla. “Los Vidal Quadras: familia y negocios, 1833–1871,”Barcelona Quaderns d’Història 11 (2004): 115–44. Cayuela Fernández, José. “Transferencia de capitales antillanos a Europa. Los patrimonios de Pedro Juan de Zulueta y Ceballos y de Pedro José de Zulueta y Madariaga (1823–1877),”Estudios de Historia Social 44–47 (1988): 191–212. Chaviano Pérez, Lizbeth, “Las huellas de la esclavitud en Madrid a través de los senadores, s. XIX,”in Del olvido a la memoria. La esclavitud en la España contemporánea, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla (Barcelona: Icaria, 2022): 39–62. Chaviano Pérez, Lizbeth, “Cádiz, capital de la trata negrera, 1789–1866,”in Cádiz y el tráfico de esclavos. De la legalidad a la clandestinidad, ed. Carmen Cózar and Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla (Madrid: Silex, 2018): 163–93. Cózar Navarro, Carmen, “Entre Cádiz y la Habana. Pedro Martínez y Compañía: la gran casa de comercio de esclavos en el reinado de Isabel II,”in Cádiz y el tráfico de esclavos. De la legalidad a la clandestinidad, ed. Carmen Cózar and Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla (Madrid: Silex, 2018): 229–62. Cuesta Ibaseta, Angela. “Arquitectura indiana en Cantabria. Finca Marqués de Valdecilla”(bachelor’s thesis, Universidad de Cantabria, Facultad de Geografía y Letras, 2015). Domènech, Joan. “Els indians de Lloret de Mar,”L’Avenç 169 (1993): 26–29. Espiazu Eizaguirre, M. La Casa de la Moneda de Sevilla y su entorno. Historia y morfología (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 1991). Feria Toribio, José María. Sevilla. Historia de su forma urbana. Dos mil años de una ciudad excepcional (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2021). Fernández de los Ríos, Ángel. Guía de Madrid, manual del madrileño y del forastero (Madrid: Oficinas de la ilustración española y americana, 1878). Fernández Muñiz, Aurea M. “Los indianos: su presencia en la economía peninsular y en la política colonial,”Trocadero. Revista de Historia Moderna y Contemporánea 4 (1992): 21–36. Fernández-Peña Bernaldo, María Magdalena. “La oligarquía indiana. Asturias-Cuba. Opinión pública y propaganda (1848–1899)”(PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2013). Florencio Puntas, Antonio, “Patrimonios indianos en Sevilla en el s. XIX: entre las tradición y la innovación,” in Fortuna y negocios: formación y gestión de los grandes patrimonios (siglos XVI–XX), ed. Ricardo Robledo Hernández and Hilario Casado Alonso (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 2002): 191–216. García-Martín, Manuel. Comillas modernista (Barcelona: Gas Natural, 1993). Giordano, Carlos Alberto, Lionel Palmisano, Roger Jiménez Remacha and Ricard Regàs. El Capricho –Villa Quijano (Barcelona: Dos de Arte Ediciones, 2012). González Arteaga, José. “Los Marañón: un ejemplo de familia innovadora en la burguesía sevillana,” Archivo Hispalense 233 (1993): 23–44. 220 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez Grandas, Carme. “Els indians i la construcción de la ciutat,”in Les bases colonials de Barcelona, 1765–1968, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Aharilla (Barcelona: Museu d’Història de Barcelona, 2014): 93–103. Grandas, Carme. Els indians a Barcelona. Ciutat i arquitectura (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, 2008). Juncosa y Gurguí, Xavier. “Jaume Torrents Serramalera,”in Negreros y esclavos, Barcelona y la esclavitud atlántica (siglos XVI–XIX), ed. Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla and Lizbeth Chaviano Pérez (Barcelona: Icària, 2017): 159–88. López García, José Miguel. La esclavitud a finales del Antiguo Régimen. Madrid,1701–1837. De moros de presa a negros de nación (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2020). Marrero Cruz, Eduardo. Julián de Zulueta y Amondo. Promotor del capitalismo en Cuba (La Habana: Ediciones Unión, 2008). Mesonero Romanos, Ramón de. El antiguo Madrid, paseos histórico-anecdóticos por las calles y casas de esta villa (Madrid: Establecimiento tipográfico de Don F. de P. Mellado, 1861). Miret i Mestre, Xavier. Els americanss de Ribes (Sant Pere de Ribes: Ajuntament, 1986). Nerín Abad, Gustau. Traficants d’ànimes: els negrers espanyols a l’Àfrica (Barcelona: Pòrtic, 2015). Nuñez Seixas, Xosé Manuel. “Retornados e inadaptados: el Americano gallego, entre mito y realidad (1880–1930)’,”Revista de Indias 214 (1996): 555–93. Pallol Trigueros, Rubén. “El Madrid moderno: Chamberí (el Ensanche Norte), símbolo del nacimiento de una nueva capital, 1860–1931”(PhD diss., Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2011). Pastrana Jiménez, Lydia. “El patrimonio inmueble de los protagonistas de la trata negrera en el Cádiz decimonónico,”in Del olvido a la memoria. La esclavitud en la España contemporánea, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla (Barcelona: Icaria, 2022): 227–240. Pereda de la Reguera, Manuel. Indianos de Cantabria (Santander: Diputación Provincial, 1968). Pérez de la Riva, Juan. Correspondencia reservada del capitán general don Miguel Tacón, 1834–1836 con el Gobierno de Madrid. Introducción, notas y bibliografía (La Habana: Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, 1963). Pérez Ledesma, Manuel. El Senado en la historia (Madrid: Dirección de Estudios y Documentación, D.L., 1988). Pérez García, Rafael, and Manuel F. Fernández Chávez, eds. La esclavitud en el sur de la península ibérica, siglos XV al XVII (Madrid: Catarata, 2021). Pérez de Vejo, Tomás. “Indianos en Cantabria,”Indianos. Monografías de los Cuadernos del Norte 2 (1982): 17–24. Piqueras, José Antonio. Negreros. Españoles en el tráfico y en los capitales esclavistas (Madrid: Catarata, 2021). Portell Pasamonte, Rafael. “Don Juan Manuel Manzanedo y González, I duque de Santoña. I marqués de Manzanedo,”Monte Buciero 10 (2004): 87–102. Ramón de San Pedro, José María. José Xifré Casas. Industrial, naviero, comerciante, banquero y benefactor. Historia de un indiano catalán (1777–1856) (Barcelona: Banco Atlántico, 1956). Ramos Martínez, Jon Ander. “Manuel Calvo y Aguirre: de Portugalete a La Habana, pasando por Madrid (1817–1904),”Euskosare 4 (2009). Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “Con un pie en Catalunya y otro en Cuba: la familia Samá, de Vilanova,” Estudios Històrics i Documents dels Arxius de Protocols 16 (1998): 359–97. Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. Los Marqueses de Comillas, 1817–1925. Antonio y Claudio López (Madrid: LID, 2000). Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “Los Goytisolo. De hacendados en Cuba a inversores en Cataluña,”Revista de Historia Industrial 23 (2003): 11–37. Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. Indians a Catalunya. Capitals Cubans en L’economia Catalana (Barcelona: Fundació Noguera, 2007). Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “Una saga de banqueros: la familia Vidal Quadras,”Historia Social 64 (2009): 99–119. The Stamp of Slavery on Nineteenth-Century Spanish Urbanism 221 Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “Travase de capitales antillanes: azúcar y transformación urbana en el siglo XIX,”in Más allá del azúcar. Política, diversificación y prácticas económicas en Cuba, 1878–1930, ed. Antonio Santamaria and Consuelo Naranjo (Aranjuez: Doce Calles, 2009): 127–58. Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “El retorn americà: families, capitals, poder,”Barcelona Quaderns d’Història 16 (2010): 75–93. Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. “Barcelona, capital del retorn,”in Les Bases Colonials de Barcelona, 1765–1968, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Aharilla (Barcelona: Museu d’Història de Barcelona, 2014): 79–92. Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. Los Goytisolo. Una próspera familia de indianos (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2017). Rodrigo y Alharilla, Martín. Un hombre, mil negocios: la controvertida historia de Antonio López, marqués de Comillas (Barcelona: Ariel, 2021). Rovira i Gómez, Salvador. “Els indians d’Altafulla, 1760–1833,”in Els Catalans a Espanya, 1760–1914, ed. Maria Teresa Pérez Picaso (Barcelona: Afers, 1990): 209–20. Sanjuán Marroquín, José Miguel. “El tráfico de esclavos y la élite barcelonesa. Los negocios de la casa Vidal Ribas,”in Negreros y esclavos, Barcelona y la esclavitud atlántica (siglos XVI–XIX), ed. Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla and Lizbeth Chaviano Pérez (Barcelona: Icària, 2017): 131–58. Solà Parera, Angels. “Os ‘americanos’cataláns e o seu impacto económico en Cataluña ó longo do século XIX,”Estudios migratorios 11–12 (2001): 141–48. Solà-Morales, Manuel de. El Ensanche de Barcelona (Barcelona: Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, 1978). Sosa, Enrique. Negreros catalanes y gaditanos en la trata cubana, 1823–1833 (Havana: Fundación Fernando Ortiz, 1997). Soto Alcaraz, Ángela. “Paisaje urbano del Paseo de prado: desde la reforma hasta la desaparición del Retiro (1767–1865)”(PhD diss., Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 1995). Stella, Alessando. Histoires d’esclaves dans la péninsule ibérique (Paris: EFESS, 2000). Tafunell, Xavier. La construcción de la Barcelona moderna. La industria de l’habitatge entre 1854 i 1897 (Barcelona: Ajuntament de Barcelona, 1994). Tate Cabré. “Rutes indianes per la Barcelona actual,”in Les Bases Colonials de Barcelona, 1765–1968, ed. Martín Rodrigo y Aharilla (Barcelona: Museu d’Història de Barcelona, 2014): 105–17. Tate Cabré. Cuba a Catalunya, el llegat dels indians a Catalunya (Valls: Cossetània, 2008). Unesco. Legados de la esclavitud. Una guía para la administración de sitios e itinerarios de memoria (Paris: Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la ciencia y la Cultura, 2019). Uría González, Jorge. “Los indianos y la instrucción pública en Asturias,”Indianos. Monografías de los Cuadernos del Norte 2 (1982): 102–19. Venero Gómez, Manuel, M. Historia de la Casa de Salud Valdecillas (Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1974). Villares Paz, Ramón. “El indiano gallego. Mito y realidad de sus remesas de dinero,”Indianos,Monografías de los Cuadernos del Norte 2 (1982): 29–34. 222 Lizbeth J. Chaviano Pérez