Emilio Benedicto Gimeno

Translated by Carolyn Halstead.

The copper pot makers from Auvergne were very famous from the end of the Middle Ages on. In the year 1449 nine pot makers from Auvergne, Guillermo de Roche, Pedro y Guinot du Lac, Pedro Puech, and Vicente y Antonio du Cuzol, were detained when they were returning to their native villages from Cataluna and Aragon.1 Another example would take place at the end of the XV century when Juan Archero, a potmaker from Aurillac, was detained and accused of being a Protestant pastor2. The potmakers could be found in different cities and towns in the whole of Europe. We find them in numerous places in France, Alsace, Lower Normandy and the Alpes, and also in foreign regions and cities such as Artois (Flanders), Madrid, Valencia and Aragon. Their presence in Aragon was one more area where this migratory movement was traditionally headed.

The inhabitants of the French Massif Central were first and foremost a migratory people. The cantons of the northwest section of Upper Auvergne experienced in the modern age demographic growth to such an extent that for lack of resources they were forced to send their men to search out a way to earn a living elsewhere. The native-born people of these areas were accustomed to emigrate since medieval times, and they never hesitated to leave their country, making their way toward Spain, the Low Countries or Germany. According to a report by Lefevre d’Omesson in the year 1697, every year 5000 to 6000 workers left Auvergne and would later return to their country with 700 or 800 thousand pounds. These emigrants basically came from the mountain areas of Aurillac, Maurillac and Saint Flour, in the northwestern cantons.3

This migratory flux of those from Auvergne with Spain as their destination is documented throughout the entire Modern Age, and the documentary evidence is multiplied significantly in the XVII and XVIII centuries. The researcher Rose Duroux took three samples from the records of the San Luis Hospital for French people in Madrid. She selected several years from the first third of the XVII century, the end of that century and from the third decade of the XVIII, finding that in all those years the presence of numerous pot makers from the cantons of Mauriac, Pleaux and Salers. In 1643 the Corregidor or King’s representative of Cuenca, D. Iñigo Mendoza, informed the Council about the arrest of eight Frenchmen from Auvergne who were on their way to la Mancha to work as copper pot makers4. In the case of Valencia, many of the French documented workers at the end of the XVIII century came also from the cantons of Mauriac and Pleaux. Some private businesses were formed to transport the temporary emigrants from France to Spain and vice versa.5

It seems that in the second half of the XVIII century emigration from Auvergne increased, caused by a succession of agricultural disasters, the root cause being especially the poor harvests of the years 1769-71.6 En the years prior to the French Revolution, a very important number of men from Upper Auvergne were to be found in Spain, especially in the Valencia area and Madrid. Another migratory current coming from the parish at Mauricois headed toward the present-day countries of Belgium and Holland and was formed exclusively by pot makers. We also find them in Switzerland, Germany and in France.7 This increase can also be documented in the case of Aragon. Hunger and misery pushed men to look for ways to make a living far away from their homes and families.

The Auvergne emigrants worked in all sorts of trades, but they acquired more fame and prestige in their work with copper. There were numerous companies made up of French pot makers that covered the whole of Europe to earn the livelihood that they were not able to earn in their villages. The trade was deeply rooted among those from Auvergne but there was no logical or geographic reason for it. In the Auvergne region there were hardly any metallurgical industries and even less mining for copper. Some of the hydraulic hammers that were used in the Jordanne valley or in the areas around Aurillac in the XVIII century were used to flatten old copper that the emigrants brought from their travels and, especially, from the copper sheets imported from Sweden and Spain.8

Copper pot making was a trade typical of emigrants who engaged in their skills away from their places of origin. The explanation would have to be sought in anthropological and cultural motives. There existed an ancestral custom of inheriting the family trade, and fathers were always proud to teach their sons to work copper. They subsequently left them their tools and their business. It would be a trade to be carried out away from Auvergne, searching through emigration the most suitable place to carry it out. That would be close to copper mines potentially suitable to be worked and the nearest possible to large demographic centers where their products could be sold. As it was a phenomenon that lasted several centuries that was
Passed on from fathers to sons, it easily could last for several generations.

Emigration on the part of many Auvergne families to Spain was of such a high caliber that it was known popularly with the nickname “the Spaniards” since they already were familiar with our country and spoke Spanish perfectly.9

3.1. – THE COPPER POT MAKERS IN ARAGON

Even though their presence is attested to from the Middle Ages on, we have to wait until the XVII century for this migratory current to involve many people, being attracted by the increase of the price of the metal and the fact that local technicians who were familiar with the secrets of copper metallurgy were non-existent.

We are aware in great detail of their presence in the village of Calamocha.10 From the year 1632 on, very unexpectedly, numerous pot makers began to arrive and were documented both in the “quinque libri”(cinq livres ?) and in the notaries’ papers. The first ones we find were Pedro and Guillen Albarate from Mealet in Auvergne, France, documented when one of them married a woman from Calamocha (which implies that they spent several years in Aragon). These were not isolated cases. These first potmakers started a very specific migratory current that would continue until the end of the XVIII century, without a break of any significance in all that time.

In the city of Zaragoza we run into people from Auvergne from 1642 on. In the neighborhood in question in that year are documented four pot makers, all of them French.11 We also find them for several decades working in various localities in the Jiloca valley. In the city of Daroca resided Juan Uisie from Rallai and and another eight persons from the Massif Central in France in the last quarter of the XVII century. Their trades are not known but they well could have been pot makers.12 The Council at Ba (accent grave)guena in the year 1718 contracted Antonio Sabio, a copper pot maker who lived in the same town, to repair all the “arambre” (copper) utensils and pots in the shops in town. In Mora de Rubielos lived Juan Pujol, a dealer from San Cristo --accent--bal in Auvergne, who maintained close ties with the pot makers from the Jiloca valley.13

This scattered data doesn’t permit us a cohesive view of the kingdom of Aragon. We must wait until the XVIII century to be able to consult broader documentary sources that allow us to ferret out the geographic distribution of the Auvergne potmakers. A Royal Order of 28 June 1764 established documents about “foreign merchants and dealers” in an effort to find out how many lived in Aragon, as well as make a distinction between those who lived there permanently and the migrants. Also in the order all the Capains Generals, Commandants Generals and the provincial capitals that were not attached to Captaincies were directed to prepare a book about foreigners that was to be prepared annually. The books corresponding to the years 1764, 1765 and 1766 have been saved and the information has been placed in table n° 5. 14

With respect to the pot makers’ place of origin, those who resided in Calamocha in the XVII and XVIII centuries, according to parish records, came from the western part of Upper Auvergne, from the canton of Pleaux, and secondarily from the cantons of Saint Flour and Aurillac. A number of towns stand out by municipal districts such as little Ally, with 29 emigrants, Chaussenat with 15 and Saint Martin Cantales con another 5, the rest scattered among Barriac, Escorailles, Fontanges, Meallet and the canton centers of Pleaux, Aurillac and Saint Flour.15 With respect to the pot makers’ companies that we find in Luco de Joloca and in Teruel in the years 1764 and 1766, they all came equally from western Upper Auvergne, with Chaussenat standing out with 9, Ally with 4 and Saint Martin Cantales with another 2. As we see, the origin of the pot makers that we find in Aragon during the modern centuries was very similar.

Table 5. Copper pot makers from Auvergne in Aragon (1764-1766)

With respect to gender, we should say that emigration of pot makers from Auvergne to Aragon was exclusively male. The ecclesiastical sources scarcely give us anything about the age of the French. We suspect that among the emigrants, young people predominated, but the few references we have reject this hypothesis. Among the obituaries registered in the parish registers from Calamocha, the emigrants from between 30 and 40 predominate, with examples also of between 50 and 70 years of age.16

Regarding information about the civil status of the emigrants, something similar occurs. The references obtained in the same church registers speak to us of an equal number of single and married men. Other sources confirm these first impressions, although the scales dip toward the married ones. In the documents about “foreign merchants and dealers”, from the years 1764, 1765 and 1766, transcribed in table n° 6, are listed 97 dealers in pot making, of which 38 are married (3 in Aragon and 35 in France) and 10 appear to be single, and the civil status of the rest is unknown.

Table n° 6. Civil status of the copper pot makers according to documents from 1764, 1765 and 1766.

In the migratory current young men were mixed constantly with adults, and single men with married ones. It was very common for the youngest to come accompanied by more expert men, possibly some relative or neighbor who had already made the trip on other occasions. The young men were unqualified or came signed up as apprentices, constituting a brute work force that could be shaped through the teachings of their own companions.

The existence of numerous pot makers who were married in France points to the seasonal or temporary nature of emigration.
Their stay in Spain was usually long, lasting normally a year. According to what Poitrineau tells us, in some mountain families of the canton of Pleaux, marriage contracts were signed in which the precise time the future husbands were going to remain in Spain was stated, attesting to the fact that in 26 contracts a 30 month absence was specified, in 7 an 18 month period and in 3 it was reduced to 12 months. Also established were mechanisms of periodic relief in which the brothers and sons-in-law of the contracted workers took over.17 These alternating systems can be seen more clearly in the merchant and artisan or mixed companies that the Auvergne people organized, relieving the members periodically. At times, these alternating systems could be agreed upon with the purpose of working out the profit with regard to the migratory process (traveling is always expensive) and what would be suitable for the families.

In some cases the stay in Spain could reach five to six years. The single emigrants were not in a hurry to return to where they came from . If the business was going well and there was enough work, they would stretch out as much as possible their stay in Aragon until they saved some capital that they would send to France at the time they decided to return, beginning a new life in their places of birth.

With respect to the destination areas of the migratory current, the places detailed in the documents called “foreign merchants and dealers” coincided in general with the mining area where copper was extracted in the later centuries, especially in the Iberian System (Iberian Mountains in north-central Spain). We find the majority of copper pot makers in Calamocha where, as we have said, was a traditional destination since the beginning of the XVII century.
The next important city was Teruel where the copper extracted from the Sierra de Albarracin was worked. The city of Tarazona, near the mines at Calcena, welcomed 12 pot makers. In the Jalon valley the pot makers resided in Calatayud, where they would work the mines in the Vicor Mountains and the area of Ateca. Another large concentration could be found in the small village of Luco de Jiloca, working its mines and working on the hydraulic hammer that was there to flatten the copper.

The localities of Caspe, Ejea, Fraga and Maella reveal a very insignificant number of pot makers, one or two artisans at the most. As there were no mines nearby, these menestrales supplied themselves with raw materials from more or less distant areas and they dedicated themselves to supplying the local market and repaired the old pots. In these villages the typical pot companies that we find in the other mining areas were not created.

3.2 – THE POT MAKERS’ COMPANIES

The migratory flux of Auvergne was characterized by creating a series of rules based on deep-rooted rural solidarity or support systems found in mountain societies. These rules were very simple: lineage, family, neighbors and community. The pot makers traveled in groups, worked whenever possible within the group, they lived in groups, they shared the same trade and they stayed together with family members or neighbors from their place of origin. These group displacements to certain towns or cities alleviated the effects of traumatic uprooting and contributed, through the mix of ages and emigration experience of others, to the perpetuation of this migratory current. Leaving together and living together, the mountaineers from Auvergne protected their own character, opposing and putting off the inevitable acculturation that would occur from the place that received them, contributing to mold their spirit and still maintain faithful to a common cultural inheritance.

The potmakers’ emigration usually had a strong family component. It affected several members of the family who carried out thesame type of activity, plus they regrouped in Spain in the same place and possibly in the same house, and in turn received full moral and material benefits by doing things in a similar way. Pedro Albarate from Meallet married a woman from Calamocha in 1633, which did not prevent him from receiving his brother Guillen into his home. Seban Fontanges lived with his brother Pedro from 1638 on. The pot maker Pedro Riviere, documented from 1634 on, was associated with his brother Anton in 1638, whom he would later refer to as his son.18
These close family relationships also explain the continuity of emigration through several generations. Jeronimo Garcelon turns up living in Calamocha in 1640, specializing in making cauldrons. In December 1644, having become ill, he made out his will, citing as legitimate heirs his sons Francisco, Juan, Miguel and Pedro, all residents of Ally in Auvergne. In the will he determined that his son Francisco should continue the trade and left him “all my worldly goods, credits (debts owed to him from customers), whatever material in stock that I have and that what belongs to me here in Spain”.
Francisco was obliged to take his brother Juan into the company, giving him whatever he needed during the next three years and teaching him the trade of copper potmaking. Upon the death of Jeronimo Garcelon his son Francisco would continue migrating, going back to Calamocha to continue working with the potmakers, but he would bring with him all his brothers Juan, Miguel and Pedro.19

The solidarity and the support among the emigrants also applies at the regional level. When we talk about where the emigrants to Calamocha, Luco and Teruel were from, analyzed together, we’ve cited 32 of them from Ally, 24 from Chaussenac and 7 from Saint Martin Canatales, numbers that surely would increase if we knew the origin of all the emigrants. The Frenchmen from the same locality usually made their way to the same destination, favoring in this way an interneighborly solidarity. French emigration, especially that from Auvergne, had an ample social component and gregariousness which contributed to its increase.

Many of the Auvergne emigrants reinforced their solidarity mechanisms through the creation of professional artisans associations. The copper pot makers who made their way toward Spain did it placed in merchant or artisan companies, authentic hierarchical brigades formed by companions and servants, masters and apprentices, mixing the innocence of the young men with the experience of the adults who had already undergone several campaigns making their way to foreign lands. The Auvergne men we find in Aragon also made use of these organizing mechanisms, forming small “companies” through a verbal pact or resorting to a French notary. 20

How the rules functioned were set in place before starting the journey toward Spain, and only in the cases of the dissolution of the company or wishing to substantially modify the agreed stipulations would they resort to the Spanish notaries. Among the Aragonese notarial acts we have found various references to the existence of these companies: two acts of dissolution and one to modify.

The first data from the year 1632, when the potmakers Esteban Fontanges and Jeronimo Garcelon appeared before the lower court judge of Calamocha to inform him that a potmakers’ company had been formed “de perdidas y ganancias” (of losses and earnings) together with Juan Cocard, and that the latter had died unexpectedly. As the deceased did not have family in Spain, they asked the judge to act as a witness in the dissolution act of the company and in the division of the profits that had been accumulated. Upon examining the accounts they determined that Juan Cocard had put into the company 243 escudos as start-up capital and had obtained benefits of another 154 escudos. Altogether they should give him 397 escudos, and they did it in the following way: 306 escudos in debts owed different personas “who they said were the most trustworthy” and another 46 escudos in different merchandise. The rest of the capital they discounted for the expenses of his illness and his later burial. They also divided different tools, arms and a wicker chair.21

The other dissolution took place in 1670, but the information is scarce. Around this date Miguel and Jorge Garcelon, potmakers who were neighbors in Ally, promised to pay the third partner in the company, their brother Juan, 1200 salary payments in 6 equal payments, to be paid every two years, “because of the share of the money and goods that belong to you both as of today”, keeping for himself a sack filled with tools.”22

The last example, the act to modify the conditions of a company from the end of the XVIII century, contains the most interesting information. The potmakers Martin Ychard and Juan Lavisierra, in name of all the emigrants that formed this company (the number is not specified), appeared before a notary to authorize the addition of Antonio Baldos, signing the following agreement:23

- The company accepts the addition of Antonio Baldos for having contributed the amount of 800 pesos.

- During the next five and a half years, said Baldos cannot request any money from the company, unless he is seriously ill, in which case he will be granted the amount necessary “in the way this company is accustomed to doing”.

- After five and one years have elapsed, the company will return to Baldos the 800 pesos that he contributed plus another 500 pesos of earnings (1,300 pesos altogether), discounting from this amount what money he would have received in case of illness.

- During these five and one half years, the company commits itself to keep him “healthy, shod, with clean clothes, beard trimmed and with tobacco”. In case he were to suffer a chronic illness, the company would be in charge of his expenses the first month, but afterward Antonio Baldos’ expenses would be up to him.

- If before completing the period of five and one half years, Antonio Baldos should die, his share of the capital placed in the company would be returned to his heirs plus the proportion of the profits related to the time he spent working for the company.
In case there was no money in the fund, the company would reserve the space of a year to return his share to his heirs.
If in that period of time it hadn’t been repaid, the heirs would have to wait the stipulated five and one-half years, and then they would receive the entire 1,300 pesos.

Each company of artisans or merchants had its own rules that could change according to the size of the business or the passage of time. In Madrid, for example, the Auvergne mercantile companies established a period of seven years for apprenticeships at the beginning of which each partner participated progressively in the distribution of profits, receiving more as they acquired greater experience in the company. 24 In the case of the potmakers’ companies located in Aragon, members’ involvement was determined to be five and one half years, at the end of which time they could withdraw their invested capital and part of the profits.

The companies took care of all the members’ expenses, providing them with food, clothing, footware and other minor expenses such as tobacco and the barber. The 90 pesos that were charged annually from the profits represented a rather considerable quantity, much higher that that charged in other jobs. Besides, figuring the accounts only once at the end of the contract meant that the potmakers could receive a small amount of capital that could permit them to acquire some property and dwellings in their native towns or put this money back into the same company or into a new company.

Family, friends from the same area and artisans’ companies were three fundamental elements that characterized the migratory current of the Auvergne potmakers. In table n° 7 the French potmakers residing in Teruel in 1764 and 1765 are included, just as they were in the “merchants and foreign dealers” for those years. We find small companies formed by fathers, brothers and sons, to those that they were adding other potmakers who surely came from the same villages. The last name Carlos predominated in the first company, in the second Tremon and in the fourth Pomeyro. All have few members, not over six, and most frequently with two or three associates maximum. 25

Table n° 7. Copper pot maker companies in Teruel (years 1764 and 1765)

In table n° 8 we do the same with the French copper pot makers documented in Calamocha in 1783 and 1786, grouping them in companies, such as they have been grouped according to the --Christmas bonus-???------cumplimiento pascual-----------for those years. They were grouped into nuclear families (two or three brothers, fathers and sons) to which they added new friends from the same locality, with whom they had family ties or not. The last names were repeated constantly within each company, Rivas in the first, Basset in the third, Perez in the fourth, Lascumbas in the fifth, Ydjar and Fialet in the seventh and Ardit in the eighth. None of the companies had many associates working at the same time in Aragon, and they numbered between two and ten members.26

Table n° 8. Copper pot maker companies in Calamocha (years 1783 and 1786)

In each company’s rules, whether written or verbal, the alternating pattern of the copper pot makers in Spain was regulated. Some would remain several years, practicing their trade continuously, while other new ones would enter the company, or others left, returning definitively to France. There were many alternating patterns, including the pot makers who worked corresponding intermediary periods in France. In some companies a stay of five and half years was required of the apprentices, as we have seen before, but this period could be modified in subsequent stays.

If we compare the make up of the existing companies in Teruel in 1764 and in 1765, even if there’s only a year’s difference, some significant changes can be seen. From the 14 pot makers from 1764 to the following year, three of them have disappeared but 6 new emigrants have joined the colony. Among the groups in Calamocha we also see these differences, more noticeable when the difference in age is greater. Of the 34 potmakers present in 1783, three years afterward 23 of them remained in their jobs, the other 11 having disappeared, possibly for having returned to France. But we also find new people, another 14 potmakers who joined the already existing companies in Calamocha, or in addition they formed a new one, the so-called eighth company.

There were constant changes, year after year, but always within the same framework of stability. When some returned to France, they entrusted to the others their tools, papers, books and pay checks so that the business could continue functioning. In the city of Fraga, there was in the year 1764 two French potmakers. It seems that they alternated their residence in this locality with other shorter periods in their places of origin: “one or the other, they reside in this city continuously, and in the meantime, the friend whose turn it is goes to France and lives there six months more or less”. We find something similar in Teruel in the year 1766 when three of the registered potmakers are found to have left the city because “they have gone to their native country for a while, as they are accustomed to doing”.27

3.3 – THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF COPPER

The companies of Auvergne artisans usually became established in one place, usually in those places where hydraulic hammers were set up to flatten the copper. They would rent a little shop and store that served as a point of reference where they could organize their “tournees" (trips or journeys), extending their commercial networks around the nearby localities.

As the XVIII century advanced and the copper factories spread out, the potmakers would buy all their copper sheets, obtaining them on credit, with the promise of paying them off when they sold the copper pots. Between the ---martinerires---and the companies there existed a certain trust, in spite of the instability of emigration. As we have pointed out, the owners of the hammers knew the emigrants perfectly and with whom they established different collaborative networks. In April 1793 a company of copper pot makers signed a contract with Antonio Rivera, owner of the hammer at Calamocha, for which they agreed to pay him a little more than 464 pesos coming from 36 arrobas (a measure of weight), 29 pounds and 9 ounces of copper, at the price of 11 pesos and a half per arroba. This amount was to be returned in the space of four years, on the condition that it could be paid in cash, old copper or the mineral itself. 28

Once having acquired the copper sheets, the existence of various partners in each company permitted sharing the work. Some remained in the workshops making new pots or repairing old copper utensils. Others were involved as traveling salesmen, moving from village to village, carrying …. Perolos-------and cooking pots in big baskets tied to their burros. They practiced their trade in stands at fairs and rural markets, in traveling markets, from door to door and from town to town. They would arrive at town squares, spread out their wares to show them to the public, light a fire they used to heat the metal and repair some broken pots. Often, in exchange for their pots, as a form of payment, they would accept other old ones, which they would take to the hammers to melt down the copper.

The pot companies that we find in the Jiloca valley made a business out of selling their products throughout the whole area of Daroca, increasing their sales as far as some localities in Lower Aragon such as Calanda, Alcorisa, Berge, Fozcalanda, Alcan tildeiz and Caspe.29 They also made their way as far as Zaragoza, a place where they ran into the very artisans of the city with whom they had frequent altercations and with the other French copper pot makers who also sold their products there. In the years 1776 and 1781 the potmakers’ guild from Zaragoza denounced Juan Rigal and Esteban Baset, emigrant French residents in Calamocha, for selling different pots and pitchers and going against municipal orders in that city. In both cases the lawsuits reached a Territorial Court hearing, and both cases were won by the two potmakers in question, reflecting the gradual loss of power of the guilds throughout the XVIII century.30

At certain times, the artisans’ companies looked determinedly for new
members, because with them would come cash that often times would guarantee the liquidity of the business. We must be aware that almost all the commercial exchanges that took place in the modern centuries did so on the basis of credit, and often times debts ended up causing the companies to collapse. In the case of the copper pot makers, the recourse to credit extended throughout the productive process. The martineires-usually sold the copper sheets to the small potmakers agreeing to pay for them when the latter sold their products. In the same way, the pot makers sold their products on credit, getting the consumer to promise to pay the debt in the shortest time possible, at times negotiating different installments.

The potmaker from Auvergne Antonio Sabio went to the Royal Court in 1766 alleging that some neighbors from Lower Aragon owed him different amounts of money “for having sold on time cooking pots and other materials of his trade”. The women who bought them didn’t want to pay for them, stretching out the payments of money, and their husbands difn’t accept and pay for their debts. The amounts owed were not very large, somewhere between 6 and 20 reales, but in order to receive payment they had to make numerous trips and undergo excessive expenses. This potmaker requested that the Royal Court send police to the town of Calanda and other villages in which he had debtors who should pay what they owe through “short trials”.

The problem many foreign merchant and artisans suffered, especially those who were engaged in door to door selling, is that customers would refuse to pay their overdue bills and the quantities were so small that it didn’t pay to resort to small claims courts. Besides, the jurors and the judges of the different localities were usually inclined to make their decisions in favor of the (French) neighbors, placing numerous impediments in the collection of the debts. In the case brought by Antonio Sabio, the Royal Court found in his favor, ordering the affected town halls to “according to law, conduct short and summary actions against those debtors who refused to pay and not giving them opportunities for new filings in court”. Things apparently did not go well for this determined potmaker because several years later, in 1771, he had to go to the Royal Court to request protection because of the same situation”.31

The final result of this archaic system based on credit is that the payments usually took up to a year and a half, with the added problem that when difficulties came up between two parties that immediately made those owing money accumulate. The potmakers would be caught without payments from their customers and for that reason they couldn’t pay what they owed to the martineires----either. These practices often led to the ruin of the weakest, that is, the small emigrant potmakers, who scarcely had money to acquire supplies, and whatever unexpected delay threw them into the most abject misery, obligating them to work for others until paying off their own debts.32 In these cases, the networks of emigrants’ clients would flourish again and the artisan masters or the owners of the hydraulic hammers would contract them again in their businesses until the debt was repaid.

3.4. - LIFE AND DEATH OF THE POTMAKING EMIGRANT

The French emigrants made their way to Spain to earn money with the intention of taking it back and investing it in their country. Spanish writers from the end of the XVI and beginning of the XVII blamed on this practice the cause of all Spain’s ills. According to the estimates of Barrionuevo, the 20,000 French emigrants that there were in Spain in 1650 took out of the country some 60 tons of silver.33 At times the export of precious metals was carried out personally when the emigrant returned definitively or returned home to see his family. On other occasions the money was given to friends of theirs or to trustworthy merchants who in a sense hid it by transforming it into merchandise. 34

Emigration by French copper pot makers was intended to be seasonal. They worked in Aragon but dreamed about returning to their country of origin the moment they had accumulated sufficient capital. It is not unusual that in the year 1684 the guilds of the city of Zaragoza criticized the great abundance of French potmakers who lived in the kingdom of Aragon, accusing them of returning every year to their places of origin to take back the money that they had earned with their work.35

The artisans residing in the Jiloca valley behaved in the same way. Anton Riviere appears in the records for the first time in Aragon in the year 1634. Twenty-three years later, he still resided in Calamocha but maintained his wife and children in Auvergne.36 The money he earned with his activities was sent back to his village at times personally, when he left to see his family, or on occasion giving it to trustworthy friends to take back.37 The concentration of copper pot makers from the same locality in Auvergne facilitated this kind of shipment.

The men from Upper Auvergne who came to Spain felt an irresistible attraction toward their home and family and toward their province of origin to which they returned periodically. Unless they married in Spain, emigration never would be permanent. And even then, they would return on occasion to their native land to visit family members and friends, or they would become close to their emigrant neighbors who visited their adopted locale, whom they would question about their family members who stayed in France.

Antonio Triniach was a potmaker from Pleaux who in the year 1721 married Ines Lafuente, a neighbor from Calamocha. This marriage gave Spanish nationality to the husband, but this did not mean that he had to break away from his Auvergne friends and much less when there existed professional ties in common. This mixed marriage took up residence in Aragon, and they welcomed into their home several companies of copper pot makers, to whom they gave lodging and with whom they shared certain business matters.

They had a son who was a legal and died in the wool Aragonese. He later married Teresa Sanchez, another Aragonese. The young couple opened their home and potmaking workshop, continuing the trade of his father. But he never renounced the old relationships that his father maintained with the emigrants, and when the French came he welcomed them wholeheartedly into their home. In the year 1786, according to what appears gathered together in the documents regarding the Christmas bonus,-------??------, there were housed in the home of the Triniachs four companies of French potmakers (all told, 12 artisans), eating and sleeping.38 The relationships between the permanent emigrants and the temporary ones were not lost, and they were maintained during several generations. They had a lot of things in common, a cultural heritage, a friendship over many years and, the most important thing, some identical professional interests.

Of course, dying in Spain was a fact that worried the emigrants enormously. Everyone made a will, normally before the notaries in France, but they didn’t hesitate to modify the will or change it completely before the notaries in Spain if they considered it necessary. Among the notaries’ documents we have found two testamentary changes carried out by the dealer-potmakers Jeronimo Garcelon in 1644 and Anton Rivera padre en 1680. 39

These men, making up their wills, besieged by some grave illness, stated in their wills that they wanted to be buried in the parish church of Calamocha (“or in the church in the town where I die” added Jeronimo Garcelon) requesting the normal funeral rites (burial, novena and anniversary mass). The money they left for expenses and masses for the salvation of their souls varied enormously. Anton Rivera delegated the decisions to ”whatever his brother felt was appropriate”. Jeronimo Garcelon decided that thirty requiem masses should be celebrated, fifteen of them in the convent of San Roque of Calamocha, which demonstrated the affection and attachment he felt toward the Jiloca valley, as a result of having spent long years of his life in Aragon. The other half of the masses would be conducted in the chapel of Our Lady in the parish church at Ally in Auvergne.

Both potmakers were married in their places of origin, and the major part of their worldly goods would go to their wives and children. Jeronimo Garcelon made a distinction between the goods he possessed in France, which were left to his wife, Francisca Sabio, with the proviso that they go their children, “dividing them in the way she sees fit”, while the goods that he had in Spain would go to his son Francisco Garcelon, so that he could continue the trade of potmaker. Anton Rivera’s decision was completely different, deciding that his wife could have all of his worldly goods, “observing widowhood”, and with the obligation of feeding and caring for all the children until they married. As we see, there are many variations, so many that it is impossible to determine some common hereditary commonalities among all of them.

Anton Rivera’s will cites his wife, Catalina Hisset, his two daughters, Margarita y Maria, and “my son who said Catalina Hisset my wife gave birth to in my absence, and whose name I am unaware of. If I could have him here by stating his name, I would do so, and it would be like having him here.??”. Another of the risks of emigration was leaving one’s wife pregnant, and not seeing the new child until several years had passed. The permanent sending of mail kept the emigrants informed and knowing the condition of their families at every moment.40 Besides, the existence of these related families eased these inconveniences, since the fathers of the emigrants or the fathers-in-law took charge of the new family responsibilities. The young mothers with children benefited from the presence and constant vigilance of the older members of the family.

In their moves through the Aragonese villages, the emigrants took with them pistols and ----mosquetones---.41 Robberies and killings weren’t out of the ordinary, and instead formed part of daily violence in this modern age, an example being what happened in June 1700 to the master copper fundidor smelterer? Juan Aban who was killed on the way to Molina by some highwaymen. 42 The emigrants had numerous encounters with gunmen, especially when they returned to their places of origin, since the thieves knew that they carried money with them to take back to France. They always traveled in groups and were very well armed, as some of the inventories showed. In the year 1637 the potmaker Joan Cocard was accustomed to carrying a Spanish-style musket, a sword and a dagger.43 All through the 17th century, as long as battles were taking place between Spain and France, carrying arms was prohibited, which represented a worrisome fear since there was a high rate of attacks and thievery and of being assaulted on their journeys. This prohibition was highly protested, as much or more than the continous war taxes that were levied on their artisan and merchant activities.44

Popular tradition, the legends that are told in some Aragonese towns, reflect the bad name that followed these itinerant copper pot makers. They were always figures who were quite picturesque and on the move. If they were young and single, they took advantage on market day to chat up the ladies, with the intention of seducing the potential buyer of their products, proud of their sales abilities. But they also were famous for pursuing certain young women of “means or dowry”, wishing logically a stability that would help them escape from misery.45 They were also famous for being thieves, as much for their mobility (which made them suspects in every thing that happened) as for their obvious poverty, which was the principal cause for their petty crimes. Nevertheless, their fame was not always faithful to reality. In spite of their pride in being womanizers, the sexual misery of the Auvergne emigrant was of such a nature that many of them began to frequent the brothels of the main cities, contracting some venereal diseases that put them in the hospital for long periods of time.46

ENDNOTES
1-Thomas, A. (1925)
2-Duroux, R. (1992): p. 22
3-Cited by Duroux, R. (1992): p. 10
4-Duroux, R. (1994)
5-Poitrineau, A. (1976): p. 132
6-Poitrineau, A. (1983): pp. 126-127
7-Poitrineau, A. (1983): pp. 32-33
8 Arbos, P. (1945) and Poitrineau, A. (1983): pp. 40-44
9 Duroux, R. (2000): p. 317
10. Benedicto Gimeno, E. (2001)
11. Redondo Veintemillas, G. (1982): pp, 96 and 247
12. Unedited information supplied by Jose Antonio Mateos, who also wrote an article about the demography of Daroca in modern times. See: Mateos Royo, J.A. (1995)
13. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1646/XII/17 (Sig. 1109, fol. 364v.)
14. A.H.N, Relacion de comerciantes y tratantes extranjeros, Leg. 629-1/11, 629-1/11 bis and 629-2/23
15. Benedicto Gimeno, E. (2001)
16. There are seven parish registers from Calamocha that give the age of the deceased (ages 15,30,32,36,40,50 and 70) while the civil status is registered in nine cases (5 single and 4 married men). See Benedicto Gimeno, E. (2001)
17. Poitrineau, A. (1983): pp. 39-40.
18. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1632/VII/22 (Sig. 1098, fol. 96 r.), 1638/II/20 (Sig. 1101, fol. 51 r.) and
1657/I/26 (Sig. 1120, fol. 16v.)
19. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1644/XII/29 (Sig. 1108, fol. 1v.)
20. We know how some of the merchant groups from Auvergne operate thanks to studies carried in Madrid and Valencia. The most famous and the companies in Navalcarnero, Chinchon, Alcazar de San Juan and Parla in Madrid, that of Segorbe in Castellon, all from the XVIII century, but these were not only the only ones but also the first ones. The existence of these companies is documented in the XVII century, however it is possible their origins date back to the medieval period. See Poitrineau, (1985): pp. 113-114 and Duroux, R. (1992).
21. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1637/II/12 (Sig. 1100, fol.48v.)
22. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1670/III/7 (Sig.1130)
23. A.H.P.Calamocha, Notario: Diego Jose de Beltran Mayor, 1782/X/7 (Sig. 1204, fol.110)
24. Duroux, R. (2000): p. 316.
25. A.H.N., Report on foreign merchants and –tratantes--, Leg. 629-1/11, 629-1/11 bix y 629-2/23
26. A.P.Calamocha, Christmas bonus books?
27. A.H.N., Report on foreign merchants and tratantes, Leg. 629-1/11s and 629-2/23
28. A.H.P. Calamocha, Notario: Diego Jose de Beltran Mayor, 1793/IV/3 (Sig. 1209, fol. 68v.)
29. A.H.P. Zaragoza. Royal Provisions?, Year 1766, Reg. 1, fol. 2 and Year 1771, Reg. 3, fol. 514-515.
30. A.H.P. Zaragoza. Civil Lawsuits. Sig. 46-6 and 1035-11.
31. A.H.P. Zaragoza. Royal Provisions? Year 1766, Reg. 1, fol. 2 and Year 1771, Reg. 3, fol. 514-515.
32. Poitrineau, A. (1983): pp. 128-129
33. Dominguez Ortiz, A. (1960)
34. A.H.P.C. Martin Miguel Esteban, 1655/IV/1 (Sig. 1118, fol. 87v.) and 1657/XII/31 (Sig. 1120, fol. 1r.)
35. Redondo Veintemillas, G. (1982): p. 233-234
36. A.H.P. Calamocha, Martin Miguel Esteban, 1634/IV/4 (Sig. 1099, fol. 50v.) and 1657/I/26 (Sig. 1119, fol. 16v.)
37. A.H.P. Calamocha, Martin Miguel Esteban, 1655/!V/1 (Sig. 1118, fol. 87v.)
38. A.P. Calamocha, Christmas bonus books?
39. A.H.P. Calamocha. Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1644/XII/29 (Sig. 1108, fol. 1 r.); Natario: Miguel Inocencio Esteban, 1680/IX/30 (Sig. 1138, fol. 144 r.)
40. The private correspondence of the “Spaniards” has been used in the historical Works of Poitrineau, citing among others some from the Jiloca valley. See Poitrineau, A. (1985)
41. Jarque, E. and Salas, J.A. (1999)
42. A.P. Calamocha. Book of the sacrament no. 3, fol. 528 v.
43. A.H.P. Calamocha. Notario: Martin Miguel Esteban, 1637/II/12 (Sig. 1100, fol. 48 v.)
44. Poitrineau, A. (1985): pp. 54-56.
45. Poitrineau, A. (1983): p. 128
46. Duroux, R. (1994)