The Dynamics of Big Business

3    Changing Fortunes for Spanish Big Business?

3.1 FRANCO'S DICTATORSHIP AMONG OLD AND NEW PROBLEMS (1939–1950)

While Italy during the mid-twentieth century was moving from Benito Mussolini's dictatorship to a democratic regime, the outcomes of the Civil War transformed the Spanish República into a dictatorship. From 1939 onward, the new leader Francisco Franco, also known as Generalísimo or Caudillo de España, adopted new economic policies that greatly affected the management and behavior of big business. His main aim was to further the development of a country that was facing at least three very serious problems.

The first is that, at the time, Spain was one of the most backward economies in Europe. During the late nineteenth and early ...