Foreign and national capital: the history of gas and urban transformations in the port cities of Lisbon and Venice in the mid-20th century

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to contribute to the study of the history of gas in the mid-twentieth century in the port cities of Lisbon and Venice, through a comparative study. In these cities, the capital of the concessionary companies for the production and distribution of gas was both foreign and national. They located their first gasometers in what are today their urban centres, next to the river or the lagoon, having had important influences on the urban transformations of the cities. Their second industries, on the other hand, were located in industrial and port areas, and far from the city centre. In this context, we intend to find out in what historical context the extensions of the gasometers took place and how these industries influenced the urban transformation of the two cities, especially in the middle of the 20th century.