The Competitive Position of the Basque Aeroespatial Cluster in Global Value Chains: A Historical Analysis

In this paper, based on the case study of the aerospace cluster of the Basque Country (Spain), we aimed at analysing how local industries develop a new specialization, that is, how a cluster emerges, and how it evolves over time. For that purpose, apart from considering local factors (both forces that are internal to the cluster and to the territory), we explicitly consider the role of institutional and technological changes, and how they affect industry structure and governance patterns of global value chains (GVCs). We observe that global-scale regulations (deregulation and competition policy) and technological change, together with local factors such as the existence of anchor firms, local policies, related variety and social capital at regional and cluster levels played a significant role in the emergence of the cluster and how it became inserted in the GVCs. Later on, the development of suppliers' capabilities also had a relevant role in the evolution of the governance patterns of GVCs.     

Grain Markets,Free Trade and the Bourbon Reforms: The Real Pragmática of 1765 in New Spain

The Real Pragmática of 1765 of Free Grain Trade was one of the most influential events in eighteenth century Spanish political and economic history? But was it influential in the Americas? Despite the abundant scholarship on the Bourbon reforms, we do not know much about the application of the Pragmática or more broadly about policies that affected domestic grain trade in the Americas. In this article I argue that the Pragmática was influential in increasing the participation of the viceroy in matters of wholesale and regional grain trade. Such changes in policies as applied in New Spain involved both pragmatism and a centralization of power, rather than a dogmatic support for free trade policies or a staunch support of traditional doctrines. In this I believe that New Spain did not differ from contemporary Western European countries, in which free trade was constantly being negotiated between different actors and authorities of various levels.     

Unraveling a Neanderthal palimpsest from a zooarcheological and taphonomic perspective

Practically all archeological assemblages are palimpsests. In spite of the high temporal resolution of Abric Romaní site, level O, dated to around 55 ka, is not an exception. This paper focuses on a zooarcheological and taphonomic analysis of this level, paying special attention to spatial and temporal approaches. The main goal is to unravel the palimpsest at the finest possible level by using different methods and techniques, such as archeostratigraphy, anatomical and taxonomical identification, taphonomic analysis, faunal refits and tooth wear analysis. The results obtained are compared to ethnoarcheological data so as to interpret site structure. In addition, activities carried out over different time spans (from individual episodes to long-term behaviors) are detected, and their spatial extent is explored, allowing to do inferences on settlement dynamics. This leads us to discuss the temporal and spatial scales over which Neanderthals carried out different activities within the site, and how they can be studied through the archeological record.