The nineteenth century's great industrial revolution manifested itself in all aspects of life and public activity. Connected to the vigorous impulse of a growing and insistently more powerful bourgeoisie, this revolution marks the beginning of a new era whose central characteristics and principles will be maintained without substantial alteration until the arrival of the twenty-first century's digital age. In this incipient capitalist society, art and commerce become inextricably intertwined. Words such as ‘corporation’, ‘business’, ‘economy’ and ‘profitability’ extend to all social relationships, including those in prominent association with culture and art. This chapter will outline the rise of the theatre as an industry in nineteenth-century Spain, examining both the opportunities created and the constraints introduced by the imposition of a commercial model on theatrical practice, and outlining publishing practices and governmental policies that at first greatly expanded the industry before concentrating its resources in the hands of a powerful minority. By the second half of the nineteenth century, theatre was more than an aesthetic, moral or nation-building enterprise; it was a business.

No artistic manifestation of this industrial–cultural connection was more powerful and influential in the nineteenth century than the theatre. Lope's famous affirmation that ‘dar gusto al vulgo’ (to please the public) was the goal of art became established as the formula of the national Spanish classical theatre and remained alive throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the nineteenth century this was further consolidated with the cultivation of an aesthetic of spectacle, high theatrics, and the expansion of offerings that saw theatre patronised by all social classes. As in the past, the authorities tried in vain to control the theatre through various regulations and restrictions, but the private sector too swiftly realised the commercial possibilities of a burgeoning industry whose expansion was connected to the growth of an urban population for whom the theatre was the preferred leisure and social activity. The material conditions of the nineteenth century created a theatre industry evident both in the literary culture of editing plays and in the performance event, which responded to the appearance of new theatrical spaces as well as the renovation of existing venues. The commercial possibilities of the play texts and performances were exploited by the theatrical impresarios keen to profit economically by offering attractive products to potential clients.