From private initiative to public intervention in Spanish water management: the case of the Muga and Fluvià rivers (1850-1930)

► The transition from private to public investment in Spanish rivers. ► Consequences of the failure of private enterprise in the late nineteenth century. ► The hydraulic paradigm in small Mediterranean Spanish rivers. ► Hydraulic works as the way to promote social and economic development. ► Agents, discourse, technology and policy in the promotion of hydraulic works.