In the early nineteenth century the agricultural sector was, as in the rest of Spain, of major importance in the Canarian economy with the traditional division between the sector of export agriculture (wines) and the mixed farming for domestic consumption; a craft industry reduced to next to nothing for the reasons outlined in the previous century, and an intermediary role in the trade relations with the American colonies. Such a model, a dependant unindustrialized area, will be strengthened with the establishment of the free ports system in the middle of the century, definitively renouncing to any industrializing option but slower than in other parts of Spain, converting our islands into a free trade area, to which is assigned the role of market for the European capitalist powerss.

This model, so dependant on external demand, explains the different economic situations of the century:

• The Napoleonic Wars of the beginning of the century, with the implementation of the continental blockade, allowed to recover markets lost for the Canarian products, especially wines. The end of the blockade in 1814 meant a drop in exports, which was immediately joined by the independence of the American colonies (the loss of traditional markets in which the islands played an important role as intermediary).
• This stage of crisis was not overcome until mid-century because of the confluence of three factors: the transformation process of the ownership regime, that allowed a greater availability of land for production; the rise of the cultivation and export of cochineal (an insect that grows attached to the cactus pads and from which a natural dye is extracted, that is used in the textile industry), thanks to the strong French and British demand from 1850 to 1870, it constituted up to 90% of the exports of the islands; and the establishment of the duty-free system which virtually eliminated all tariffs on imports in 1852.
• This prosperous situation was short-lived due to the reduction in the demand for cochineal from 1870 on, because of the increasing use of chemical dyeing substances in the textile factories in Europe. They tried to overcome this new crisis, first, by planting two other export crops, tobacco and sugar cane destined for the mainland market, and second, to the commercialisation of bananas, and early harvest tomatoes and potatoes. This starts with a very important presence of British capital (Fyffes, Wolfson, Yeoward) responsible for promoting the consumption of bananas in Britain and introducing varieties of potatoes from the British Isles (King Edward, Up-to-Date) or exportable tomato seeds.