The political world of Europe in the nineteenth century was marked historically by the progressive emergence of liberal forms of the capitalist State throughout the continent. But the political picture was different in Spain, where a monarchical clan remained in charge of what Weber would call a patrimonial State system (Brenan:1976). Industrial enterprise in the country was spotty and stagnating; and so, in a manner more reminiscent of Latin America than of Europe, the transition to capitalism tended to take place under the aegis of the banks, allied to foreign capital. Economically, this led to such commonplace phenomena of underdevelopment as a massive programme of railroad construction, financed by foreign capital, which was so far ahead of the immediate needs of the economy that financial crisis ensued. Politically, the transition was so far contaminated by feudal remnants, including the institutional identification of the Church with the State system, that such change that occurred in the society itself was not only painfully slow but also remained subject to the reactivation of absolutist patterns of dominance (Vilar:1977). In short, capitalism appeared to take root without any corresponding revolution in the exercise of political power.