The news was greeted with strong opposition from the Catalan trade organisation, Junta de Comerç, as it was feared that the project was a cover-up for importing cheaper English textiles. The businessmen would later change their minds after inspecting the new factory site in Barcelona in March 1833. Jordi Nadal: p. 6-8 "Els Bonaplata: Tres generacions d'industrials catalans a l'Espanya del segle XIX" [The Bonaplatas: Three generations of Catalan industrialists in 19th century Spain] (PDF) (in Catalan). Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
In 1834 the French geographer Moreau de Jonnès praised the factory in the Spanish part of his "Statistique de l'Agriculture de France", which compared European economies. This was translated into Spanish by the lawyer and future politician Pascual Madoz in his "Estadística de España" in 1835, who added the comment that El Vapor brought about a "full revolution". In 1846 Madoz again highlighted the importance of the Bonaplata Factory as the dawn of the new industrial age. In 1867 Ildefons Cerdà, the Barcelona urban planner who reshaped the city, talking about his youth, remembered "El Vapor" as the turning point between two ages. Jordi Nadal: p. 7 and 15 "Els Bonaplata: Tres generacions d'industrials catalans a l'Espanya del segle XIX" [The Bonaplatas: Three generations of Catalan industrialists in 19th century Spain] (PDF) (in Catalan). Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
