ESPARTO ESPAÑOL E INDUSTRIA PAPELERA BRITANICA: EL CASO DEL EMPRESARIO WILLIAM McMURRAY

Authors

  • Javier Castillo Fernández
  • Alan Crocker

Keywords:

Esparto grass, Papermaking, Commercial relationships, Newspapers, Family busines, Industrial Archaeology, Spain, Great Britain, North Africa, XIX<sup>th</sup> Century

Abstract

William McMurray (1806-1887) was a wireworker in Scotland and his company became very successful supplying paper mills all over the world with machine wires. He also became a papermaker, a stationer and a newspaper proprietor. In 1847 he moved to south-east England where he owned four paper mills. Much of the paper was made from esparto grass, grown in south-east Spain, where McMurray held licences to gather esparto on large estates, built factories where the grass was processed, and exported it to Britain on his own steam ships. McMurray’s business activities, the role played by his brother James and other relatives in his projects, the fortunes of his companies after his death and the physical remains of the sites with which he was associated are described.

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Author Biographies

Javier Castillo Fernández

Archivo General de la Región de Murcia

Alan Crocker

University of Surrey

Issue

Section

Varia