Yolanda Blasco-Martel awarded the XVI Premi Catalunya d’Economia 2019

UB School of Economics researcher ​​Yolanda Blasco-Martel has been awarded the XVI Premi Catalunya d’Economia 2019 for her work ‘El Banc de Barcelona, 1874-1920; decadència i fallida’. A book written jointly with UB professor Carles Sudrià Triay, currently retired. Sudrià was the director of Blasco’s doctoral thesis, “An intelligent man with an impressive capacity for work”, in the words of the co-author of the book. 

During the online event, the awarded teachers presented a summary of the work that already won the Vicens Vives 2017 prize, awarded by the Spanish Association of Economic History, to the best book of this branch of studies published in Spain.  

The publication retraces the history of the Bank of Barcelona, founded in 1844 as a currency issuer, which developed its activity in Barcelona, Tarragona, Reus and Mallorca. Despite overcoming two crises in 1848 and 1866, it lost its issuing privilege in 1874. From that moment, it continued operating as a commercial bank, until its closure in December 1920, which marked the end of one of the pioneering experiments and most successful banking institutions on the peninsula.   

The ceremony was co-chaired by the president of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), Joandomènec Ros, and by the president of the jury and the Societat Catalana d’Economia (SCE), Eduard Arruga i Valeri, while the Vice-President of La Caixa Foundation, Juan José López Burniol delivered the prize. 

“Winning this prize is a joy and a double recognition,” Dr Blasco-Martel said, “to the work done for almost 20 years to compose the history of banking and to the contribution that economic history makes to the economy”.

 

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