The search for a tool for the written message
The graphic language was improved from the symbol or glyph until signs representing sounds, i.e. the alphabet.
The difficulty of using this language lays in support thereof, which in principle was stone, wood, metal or clay. It took thousands of years until humanity found most appropriate materials for their inscriptions, such as papyrus or parchment and eventually paper.
Spain as a precursor role in the Western world
In Muslim Spain paper mills where built in Cordoba, Seville, Granada and Toledo during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
In these Spanish primitive roles we find esparto and hemp fibers and better crushing wipe thanks to the advances in hydraulic techniques.
The role spans Europe
The paper reaches the rest of Europe from Spain and migratory movements of the Crusaders who brought it from the East; especially Italian and Provencal who traded with Baghdad and Damascus.
The first European mills are found in the Mediterranean, highlighting Spain, Italy and France.
Italy was a very important paper leader, introducing major improvements in manufacturing, such as using mallets, the use of animal glue and the invention of the watermark. Soon French products, competing with the best roles of Italy, joined the papermaking manufacture, acquiring great prestige both countries in the XVI and XVII centuries.
We have to wait until late XIV century to find paper mills in Central Europe, where later, thanks to the intervention of printing, enjoyed a huge expansion.
Great demand for paper: Printing
In 1440 Johann Gutenberg invents the typographical art, with which composing texts of any length and getting lots of copies became possible.
The printing press gave a true measure of the value and usefulness of the paper, as gathered, in addition to its graphic qualities, abundant, inexpensive be (cost one tenth that parchment), durable, transportable and affordable access to enormous amounts requiring the printers.
A printing press needed three reams of daily paper (1,500 sheets); therefore, there is a close relationship between the manufacture of paper and printing, prosperity not being conceived without the other. Between the late XV century and the mid XVI, Europe was covered by paper mills.
Large paper Spanish mills in locations
After a promising start, the manufacture of paper in Spain lived periods of greater and lesser prosperity until the eighteenth century, considered the Golden Age of papermaking in our country and especially in Catalonia.
In this period, the Crown made a firm commitment to improve techniques in paper manufacture, royal decrees were issued to prevent the escape of raw materials and liberalized trade with the Indies.
Likewise, the Royal Board of Trade, sent translated from the French “The art of making paper” written by Lalande, and foreign teachers came to Spain papermakers, especially Genoese, to improve the technique of Spanish and disseminate the secrets of the trade.
Felipe V created a Royal Paper Factory in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), to supply the Crown and supply to the Indies sealed paper.
As the result of this policy, the Spanish manufacturing reached a high level competing with the best in the rest of Europe. Large paper cores were created gradually, disappearing small mills scattered along rivers. The French invasion and the Carlist wars ended this period of maximum splendor.