31

This article seeks to identify whether the origins of the circular economy were already in place by the end of the 20th century. Historical analysis has highlighted that wartime often generates the conditions in which innovative actives thrive as scarcity and shortages require adaptation of productive models. What is less well understood is how these changes occur, for how long they last and, specifically in this research, what role is played by adopting elements of the circular economy.This article examines a particular case of war and its aftermath: the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the First Franco regime (1939-1959) and it focuses on the railway sector. Our research traces the manner in which the railway companies and the State managed their limited resources using the circular economy almost sixty years before it had appeared as a concept. To do so, we analyze the recycling and waste recovery programs of the different companies during the war. We then look in more detail at the case of one of the main railway infrastructure companies of the 1950s and 1960s, Ferrovial, whose success stems, in part, from the introduction of certain elements of circularity in its management. These two studies allow us to explore the historical links between scarcity and the circular economy.