Mallorca

"Mallorcan workshops dedicated to making barrels (boteríes) do not merit being considered factories as they are small and hire at most 4-5 workers or less.

There are 19 carriage and cart factories in Palma, some of which even make wagons. Each of these generally employ two or three or occasionally up to five workers. Due to the little amount of labor employed, the quality of their work is generally low. There are two in Alaró, 2 in Santa María, 1 in Pollença, 7 in Inca, 2 in Artà, 3 in Manacor, 1 in Bunyola, 5 in Llucmajor and 2 in Sóller.

The number of carpentry shops is fairly high both in Palma and the other towns. Their production is very diverse, in general, focusing on doors and windows for homes, tables, armoires, chests of drawers, beds, and wooden chairs made of poplar, pine, mulberry, walnut, cherry, mahogany and other quality woods; olive tree is little used for these. For doors, windows and blinds, they primarily use fir and pine trees (llenyam de Nord). For common furniture they use poplar; for finer items they primarily use mahogany and other types of lesser quality wood called xicaranda.

Palma also has 4 or 6 cabinetmaker’s workshops, two of which can be qualified as real factories due to their importance. In general, they use between 10 and 15 workers, compared to 6-10 in others. Some workshops in the capital are mixed in nature. Though classified as cabinetmakers, they are not exclusively and permanently dedicated to this area.

There are also 6 wood lathe shops in Palma and 1 in Sóller, with a total of 15 workers dedicated to making pieces for furniture. One lathe operator in particular crafts exquisite Salomonic columns, his delicate spiral shapes avoided by others who simplify them, making a series of egg-shaped thickenings instead.

The only industrial sawmill on the island is in the capital. It includes two, approximately 8-horsepower steam machines. One works with mahogany, rosewood, walnut and a great variety of wood used in cabinetmaker’s. The other one is used to cut more common wood such as pine, Holm oak, poplars, etc., destined to make planks and beams. This sawmill currently employs no more than five people, including the stoker."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: General Part. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.