Speech by Amadeu Barbany Grau, 4th generation shopkeeper and co-founder of IAIOS at the La Porxada Awards in Granollers in 2019.

As a trader, I have to tell you that I often find myself lost. I ask myself: What am I? What do I do? What is my name?

What is the name of our business? Traditional business? Small business? Neighborhood business? Business in danger of extinction?

One day I was so lost that I took a dictionary. You know, a dictionary is a thick book that we have on a shelf full of dust and that when you open it you find the meaning of words. The first one I looked up was *botiguer and the definition said: "Person who has a shop set up". I thought we weren't doing well... (* the word "botiguer" in Catalan could be translated into Spanish as shopkeeper or merchant.)

I continued reading and the second definition said that the botiguer was a bird. I thought; that sounds good! It seems that the "botiguer" is a small bird that is normally on the banks, on the verges of rivers and is always very alert. It sits high on a branch in a privileged position... And from time to time the bird enters like an arrow into the river and catches a client, I mean a small fish.

Investigating further, I discovered that people used to call this bird "botiguer" because it is one of the most colourful birds in Catalonia. It is a bird with a large head and a small tail, and from behind it looks like it is wearing a blue coat. It seems that merchants used to wear a blue coat, and that is how I discovered the origin of the name.

As I was not very satisfied, I thought of looking up the meaning of the word "commerce" and this is the following: purchase and sale of natural, industrial products and/or services. Personally, I did not like this definition very much, I found it very brief and very cold.

But I finally found one that I liked better! It said: Commerce: Exchange of ideas and feelings between people.

I immediately thought: This is our definition! This is what we shopkeepers have been doing for centuries and centuries.

I would like to tell you a little anecdote if I may. Shortly before the Neolithic there were three very clever sisters. One day, the eldest sister, who was called "Come on," decided to plant a seed and had a good harvest. This harvest created a surplus, and thus, unwittingly, she started the Neolithic revolution. The second sister, who was called "I'll be back," took the surplus production and took it to a crossroads to sell it and, unwittingly, started the trade revolution. When the youngest sister, who was called "I'm staying here," arrived, the origin of cities took place.

As you all know, most cities in Catalonia and the rest of Europe were created and grew around a crossroads. Trade was, from the beginning, the backbone of our cities.

At these crossroads, our definition of trade was put into practice on a daily basis. Multiple exchanges of ideas and feelings. Time went by and this exchange was continued by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Romans, also the barbarians and the Arabs... all these people were the merchants of the time and they carried much more than just products. They told stories, commented on advances, technical and scientific discoveries and spoke different languages. For this reason, today we know that trade made possible great advances such as the alphabet, navigation or currency.

For all these reasons, I would like to point out that trade has not only been an economic fact. It has been a space for the exchange of ideas and feelings, for relationships, for sharing, and together we have made each of our cities. So, what happens when a business closes? Well, a whole network of relationships woven over the years disappears. It is a huge shame...

I have been walking around different cities lately and I see the commercial past and the life they had, and now they are practically dormitory towns. This is not the case with Granollers, but in Granollers we have another problem, like many other cities, which is the "cloning" of commerce. One loses the illusion of going from one city to another because in practically all of them there are the same shops. And this cloning extends to foreign cities such as Paris or London and throughout Europe. And who is to blame for all this? The big companies? The town councils? The administration? The politicians? ... To a large extent I would say that it is our fault.

We have the world that we consume. Often, we shopkeepers do not go to small businesses. It turns out that we all go to 20 companies that we all know and that decide for us the world that we "do not want."

A while ago I was giving a talk at the University of Girona and in front of about 60 students I asked them a question: tell me a store here in Girona where you sell