State, enterprise, market. Standard Eléctrica and the industry of the telecommunication equipment in Spain, 1926–1952

Abstract

This article examines the formation of the industry of equipment for telecommunication in Spain, a subspecialization of the electrical sector hegemonised by a company of great size in monopoly regime. It focusses on a crucial period that includes from the creation of Standard Eléctrica S.A. (SESA) as a branch of International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT) and manufacturing arm of CTNE to the signature of the second contract subscribed between CTNE and SESA in the dawn of the economic opening of the Francoism. During that quarter of century, the monopoly which enjoyed CTNE in the telephone service also offered the protected market to ITT in the industrial slope. On the other hand, the insertion of SESA in the ITT group granted privileged access to him to new technological developments. There is the key of the ascent of SESA and their capacity to draw for extremely difficult conjunctures. Thus it is understood better why the autarky was not a bad time, by paradoxical that can seem, safe by the difficulties acceding to basic raw materials and others inputs.