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The objective of the ecclesiastical confiscations, known as ''desamortizaciones'', was the nationalisation of all the assets (buildings, land, works of art, books, etc.) from the so-called ''manos muertas'', most of which were property of the religious communities, except for the educational and health care ones. There were precedents: assets belonging to the expelled Jesuits, some attempts by Godoy, the assets confiscation to the liberals and the Francophiles, or the nationalisation of the Inquisition property and of the military orders, decreed by the ''Cortes de Cádiz''.<br>
The ecclesiastical confiscation of Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, who was the progressivist Treasury Minister during the regency of María Cristina, started in 1835. The goods from religious orders were confiscated and sold to the highest bidder to pay off public debt, finance the Carlist War and create an agrarian middle class with the peasants, who would then purchase the cultivated land. He also wanted to get supporters for liberal ideas and persuade the Carlist War towards the child Queen, apart from promoting the agrarian production and its trade. Between 1836 and 1837, 3,600 millions of ''reales '' (Spanish currency) were raised (''[[:File:XXX|Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizabal ]]'' map).<br>
The execution of the Mendizábal confiscation decrees was paralysed during the moderate decade (1844-1854, Narváez government). However, Pascual Madoz, Treasury Minister during the progressive biennium (1855-1856, government of Espartero), reactivated them with more intensity: he applied them not only for the confiscation of church property, such as in the first confiscation, but also for the communal properties from the municipalities and the ones from the State itself (''[[:File:XXX|Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Madoz ]]'' map). They were aimed at financing railway works, promoting agrarian production and modernising the countryside.<br>
In general, the peasants were unable to buy the confiscated land, which fell into the hands of, either the former owners (through figureheads) or the wealthy urban bourgeoisie, transformed into the landlord's bourgeoisie. On the other hand, many municipalities remained without rents and had to increase the tax burden. It is relevant to point out that provincial museums were created with the [https://museo-mnev.gvam.es/#/ works of art], and monastic libraries were transferred to the newly created provincial secondary schools and to some universities.
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The restauration paved the way for a period of socioeconomic stabilisation, of consolidation of the goals achieved during the Elizabethan period and the creation of new ones.<br>
The offer of agricultural land, because of the confiscations, increased the cultivated land surface, the agricultural production and consumption. Until 1882, the economic agricultural conditions facilitated the inland cereal production. [https://www.elmundo.es/internacional/2014/03/16/5324b215ca47411f1d8b4574.html The Crimean War ] and the subsequent conflicts in Eastern Europe facilitated exports, to the extent that there was an emergence of a flour milling bourgeoisie in the two Castile regions, whose motto was: “Water, sun and war in Sebastopol”.<br>
Nevertheless, from that moment cereal imports started, favoured by the railway and a very benign climate that increased production. As a result, prices decreased and the countryside, once again, went into crisis and a new cycle began of rural exodus to the large industrial cities.<br>
At the end of the 19th century, 70% of the national production of iron was located in the Basque Country, so Spain became the main iron supplier for the rest of Europe. There was a huge increase in production from 43,000 tons of iron ingots, 37,000 tons of soft iron and steel, which were produced in 1868, to 310,000 and 190,000 tons, respectively manufactured in 1900.<br>
The iron exploitation was important for the [https://www.lavanguardia.com/historiayvida/historia-contemporanea/20180920/47312534370/el-ferrocarril-en-espana.html railway expansion]. The benefits from the Madoz confiscation decrees and a series of laws that promoted its financing, such as the ''Ley General de Ferrocarriles de 1855 '' (General Railway Act), which attracted foreign capital, contributed to it (French capital in the Northern rails and British in the Sourthern ones). The first railway in the Iberian Peninsula was the Barcelona-Mataró line in 1848, followed by the Madrid-Aranjuez one in 1851. In 10 years (1856-1866) 460 km were built per year, reaching 5,000 km. In a second 23-year-stage, (1873-1896) it reached 12,000 km. The 20th century started with 15,000-km-railway lines, some of which were international: Madrid-Lisbon (1881) and Lisbon-Madrid-Paris (1887).<br>
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