Historian Unveils Casa Cintet Archive: Andorra's 19th-20th Century Trade Boom

Historian Daniel Fité has presented a comprehensive study of the Casa Cintet archive, a collection of over 20,000 documents that chronicles Andorra's commercial diversification from the late 19th to mid-20th century.

The archive, preserved by Jacint Rossell Maestre and his son Jacint Rossell from the Casa Cintet firm in Andorra la Vella, includes 8,000 invoices, accounting ledgers, correspondence, and contracts spanning 1854 to 1945. Donated to the National Archive in 2018 in pristine condition, it is now accessible online. Fité, originally from Cabó and trained in Barcelona, delivered the first public overview of his work yesterday at the government's exhibition hall. The study was commissioned by Andorra Recerca + Innovació, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Ministry of Culture.

Casa Cintet emerged as a standout amid Andorra's commercial scene, functioning like an international operation despite the Principality's small size. The Rossells sourced goods from Calaf, Tàrrega, Béziers, Toulouse, Barcelona, and Madrid, with clients occasionally asking them to run errands on trips. Their activities spanned manufacturing matches—the first in Andorra, produced in 1893 at a factory midway between Andorra la Vella and Escaldes to skirt local safety concerns—tobacco, and pasta soup. They sold hams, lightbulbs, hides, high-end groceries like Moët & Chandon, shoes, esparto grass items, gasoline via a Shell station, currency exchange services, sewing supplies, wines, hardware, kitchenware, and even funeral materials such as fabric, pillows, and nails for rented coffins.

The firm's ambition extended to alliances with smugglers, including the Andorran community in Béziers, to exploit French and Spanish matches and phosphorus monopolies. They negotiated with the General Council for monopolies on matches and milk, with mixed results. In 1904, Jacint the younger invested in foreign mining shares: Compagnie Royale Asturienne des Mines for Asturian coal, Guipúzcoa zinc and lead; Government Gold Mining Areas Limited and Westrand Consolidated Mines for South African gold operations.

Fité highlights the archive's exceptional continuity and completeness, calling its survival "a miracle" across generations. "Commercial collections like this are very rare—they often disappear when the business ends," he said. It offers a rare glimpse into Andorra's improbable economic dynamism, challenging views of the fin-de-siècle Principality as isolated.

The enterprise began in 1854 when Maria Maestre, heir to Cal Casadet, married Jacint Rossell, a saddler from Encamp. Their son Jacint, educated in Toulouse, joined in 1886, fueling expansion until his death in a 1907 cart accident near Coll de Nargó. Patriarch Jacint followed soon after. Grandson Amadeu stepped in from Toulouse alongside Rita Naudí, shifting the firm to Vidua Rossell é Hijo. Priorities turned to stability, real estate, and ventures like the 1912 La Nueva Habana tobacco factory with German machinery. The 1920s brought further diversification into automotive supplies, hospitality like the Casino hotel in Escaldes-Engordany, electrification, and forestry amid rising competition. Activity waned in the 1930s due to wars, with the shop closing by the mid-1950s.