The next seven years represent a pause in Spanish history. A few days of rioting and the fall of the Government responsible for it had released the tension that, since 1906, had been accumulating in Barcelona. The Anarchists were busy organizing a new trades union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, in imitation of the French C.G.T. and in rivalry with the Socialists. The Catalan Nationalists had been frightened by the riots and were keeping quiet. Their united front, Solidaridad Catalana, had broken up over the religious question (that is to say, the tactics of the Government had been successful) and the Lliga, with somewhat reduced enthusiasm, became once again the only serious representative of Catalan ambitions. But it had been momentarily appeased by a new schedule of tariffs which gave Catalonia a complete monopoly of the home market and by a moderate measure of devolution (the Law of Mancomunidades) which after endless discussion in the Cortes it had obtained by decree in 1913. The King, too, had been warned at Edward VII’s funeral of the danger of moving too far along the path of reaction and with a change of tone that came easily to him he proclaimed himself a good Liberal and even flirted with the Republicans.

For several years therefore Conservative and Liberal governments peaceably succeeded one another and, though most of the faults of the regime remained, a real public opinion was growing up in the large towns and occasionally even asserting itself in the elections. The omens for the commencement of a more healthy state of affairs began to appear favourable. In the industrial and mining centres a series of strikes raised the wages of the workmen, and the Conservatives interested themselves in improving their condition by legislation.