The Balearic Islands in the 18th Century

When Charles II died childless (1700), the Spanish crown was contested between Philip of Bourbon and Archduke Charles of Austria. The Balearics, like Catalonia, sided with the Archduke. Menorca fell into British hands in 1708. Mallorca and Ibiza held out until 1715, a year after the fall of Barcelona.

Philip V imposed the Nueva Planta decree: he abolished the institutions of the Kingdom of Mallorca and the Universitat of Ibiza, placed government in the hands of captains general and intendants, and began imposing Castilian in the administration. The people of Ibiza also lost the right to work the salt pans, which they had held since the 13th century: from then on the salt belonged to the Crown.

Menorca changed hands five times in a century: British (1708–1756), French (1756–1763), British (1763–1782), Spanish (1782–1798) and British (1798–1802). The Peace of Amiens returned it to Spain for good in 1802.

The first governor, Richard Kane, built a road across the island, brought in cattle and better pasture and encouraged cheese making. He moved the capital from Ciutadella to Mahón, the great natural harbour the British wanted for their fleet. Mahón filled with British, Greek and Italian merchants, and the island reached some 30,000 inhabitants.

In 1756 the French took Fort St Philip, and in 1781–1782 a Franco-Spanish army besieged it for months until it surrendered.

The Barbary corsairs of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli were less fearsome than in the 16th and 17th centuries, when they came to sack entire towns. But they still hunted ships, fishermen and coastal farmers to ransom them or sell them as slaves. Their favourite vessel was the xebec: narrow, fast, with lateen sails and oars for when there was no wind. Their captains were called rais.

In September 1765, for example, a twelve-gun Algerian xebec boarded the Navy galiot Vigilante near Es Vedrà and took her commander prisoner.

In the 16th century, the physician and historian Joan Baptista Binimelis devised a network of watchtowers around Mallorca. Each tower could see its neighbours. When the guards spotted enemy sails, they made smoke by day and fire by night, and the warning ran from tower to tower all the way to Palma. The guards were people from the coastal villages, obliged to take turns. In the 18th century ordinances were issued forbidding them to leave the tower.

In the Pityusic Islands, many towers date from this century: those on Formentera (sa Gavina, es Garroveret, es Pi des Català, sa Punta Prima) signalled with smoke to one another and to Ibiza.

The islanders did not just defend themselves. With a letter of marque from the king, a shipowner could lawfully attack enemy vessels and keep the prize. It was not piracy: it could only be done against enemies of the Crown. In the 18th century Ibiza lived through its golden age of privateering: in 1762 Salvador Grisaldo received a letter of marque for the xebec Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, and by 1764 he had already captured four Barbary ships.

The most famous is the Mallorcan Antoni Barceló (1717–1797). He started as a ship's boy on his father's xebec, which carried the mail between Palma and Barcelona, and ended up as her captain. From 1739 he hunted Barbary corsairs and, rare for someone without titles, rose to lieutenant general of the Navy.

In 1775 a Spanish army landed at Algiers and had to re-embark with heavy losses. Charles III changed strategy: in 1783 and 1784, Barceló bombarded the city with gunboats, the second time alongside ships from Naples, Malta and Portugal. Algiers did not surrender, but the threat of returning every year led to the peace of 1786, for which Spain paid a large sum. Tunis signed in 1791. Raids fell sharply, although they did not stop altogether until France occupied Algiers in 1830.

Olive oil · Mallorca

It was the island's leading export. The Serra de Tramuntana was almost entirely olive groves, and with its oil Mallorca bought the wheat and manufactured goods it lacked. Olives were milled in the tafones: the hopper, the millstone that crushes them, the esparto mats and the beam that presses them. Mallorca also exported brandy, wine and soap.

Cheese · Menorca

It was already made in the Middle Ages, but under Kane it grew a great deal. The officials who recorded exports added the port of origin, Mahón, and so it became known everywhere as «Mahón» cheese, even though it was made all over the island.

Salt · Ibiza

The salt pans were the island's great wealth. Salt workers raked the salt out of the ponds, it was piled into heaps and loaded onto the barges that carried it out to the ships. After 1715 the profit went to the Crown.

Dried fish · Formentera

Formentera had been left almost deserted by corsair raids. In 1697 it began to be resettled with people from Ibiza, who lived off the land and the sea. Rays and smooth-hounds salted and dried in the sun are a Pityusic tradition that is still alive.

The Llotja of Palma is a Gothic building (1426–1447) raised by the Col·legi de la Mercaderia, the merchants' guild. In the 18th century Mallorcan trade grew: after the free trade decree (1778), merchants such as Benet Capó shipped brandy, wine, soap and oil to the Americas and brought back sugar and cocoa. The port of Mahón, on the other hand, became a wheat depot for the Mediterranean.

• Junípero Serra (Petra, 1713–1784), a Mallorcan Franciscan friar, founded the first missions in Alta California.
• In 1782 the Diocese of Ibiza was created, separate from that of Tarragona. The first bishop, Manuel Abad y Lasierra, sought to reorganise island life around new parishes.
• In 1726 Formentera built the fortified church of Sant Francesc, which also served as a refuge from the corsairs.

History: the watchtowers, the smoke and fire signals, the Barbary and home-grown corsairs, the letters of marque, the xebecs, British Menorca and the four products of each island.

Game: a single Llotja for all four islands (in reality each island sold through its own ports), a watchtower that turns an island into trumps, and prices that rise and fall within a single round. The trades on the cards follow the traditional process for each product; the ships on the 11s are vessel types of the period.

• Museu de Menorca: «El segle XVIII, entre Espanya i la Gran Bretanya».
• Product specification of the PDO Mahón-Menorca (history of the cheese). European Commission, eAmbrosia register.
• «Spanish–Algerian War (1775–1785)» and «Antonio Barceló». Wikipedia.
• «Llotja de Palma». Viquipèdia (Catalan Wikipedia).
• Defence towers of Mallorca. Consorci Serra de Tramuntana; Ajuntament de Llucmajor.
• History and defence towers of Formentera. Consell de Formentera.
• Ibizan privateering in the 18th century. Sot de l'Aubó journal (RACO); Periódico de Ibiza, 2006.
• «Els intercanvis comercials» (Balearics, late 18th century). Enciclopèdia.cat.
• «Bisbat d'Eivissa». Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• On the Ibiza salt pans and the Nueva Planta. Periódico de Ibiza, 2017.