Gabriel Tortella, Alfonso Ballestero, and Jose Luis Diaz Fernandez. Del monopolio al libre mercado: La historia de la industria petrolera espanola [From Monopoly to the Free Market: A History of the Spanish Oil Industry]. Madrid, Spain: LID Editorial Empresarial S.L., 2003. 632 pp. ISBN 8-488-71732-6, X23.08.

What interest can there be in the history of the petroleum industryof a country without oil, such as Spain? Can the lack of hydrocarbonsbe considered the main cause of its economic retardation? Thediscussion and the confutation of these two questions, whichopen the introduction, represent the subtle thread that runsthroughout this book. The volume reconstructs in very detailed and precise ways thehistory of the oil sector in Spain in