Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economic Aspects of Spanish Imperial Expansion, 1492–1550
- 3 Commodities and Resources During the Conquest Period
- 4 The Hapsburg Commercial System
- 5 Inter-Colonial Trade and the Hapsburg Commercial System
- 6 Foreign Penetration of the Ibero-American Economy in the Hapsburg Period
- 7 Economic Growth in Spanish America in the Hapsburg Period
- 8 Commercial and Economic Relations in the Early Bourbon Period, 1700–1765
- 9 ‘Free Trade’ and the Peninsular Economy
- 10 ‘Free Trade’ and the American Economy
- 11 Economic Relations Between Spain and America on the Eve of the Revolutions for Independence
- 12 Conclusion: Economic Grievances and Insurrection in Late Colonial Spanish America
- Appendix: Spanish Monarchs
- Glossary of Spanish Terms
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
8 - Commercial and Economic Relations in the Early Bourbon Period, 1700–1765
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures and tables
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Economic Aspects of Spanish Imperial Expansion, 1492–1550
- 3 Commodities and Resources During the Conquest Period
- 4 The Hapsburg Commercial System
- 5 Inter-Colonial Trade and the Hapsburg Commercial System
- 6 Foreign Penetration of the Ibero-American Economy in the Hapsburg Period
- 7 Economic Growth in Spanish America in the Hapsburg Period
- 8 Commercial and Economic Relations in the Early Bourbon Period, 1700–1765
- 9 ‘Free Trade’ and the Peninsular Economy
- 10 ‘Free Trade’ and the American Economy
- 11 Economic Relations Between Spain and America on the Eve of the Revolutions for Independence
- 12 Conclusion: Economic Grievances and Insurrection in Late Colonial Spanish America
- Appendix: Spanish Monarchs
- Glossary of Spanish Terms
- Bibliographical Essay
- Index
Summary
THE NEW DYNASTY
The question of how to interpret Spanish aims and achievements with respect to America in the eighteenth century is one which continues to preoccupy historians. Was it, as the ministers of Charles III and the historians of the late-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who accepted their interpretation insisted, a period of unhindered progress and prosperity, when the implementation of a rational reform programme awakened Spain from its slumber of the seventeenth century, and then enabled it to ‘rediscover’ America, and turn it into the material and spiritual force for the further regeneration of the metropolis? Or, as the more critical historiography of the late-twentieth century suggests, should it be characterised as a period when Spain fumbled with imperial structures, pursuing reforms in a hesitant, uncertain way, and succeeded only in bringing its American possessions to the levels of maturity and confidence required for their transition to independence in the early-nineteenth century? These, and related, questions continue to preoccupy historians concerned with the general thrust of Bourbon policy towards America between 1700 and 1810. They should also be kept in mind when reading this chapter, which will outline the economic and commercial policies pursued by the early Bourbons, as a preliminary to more specific and detailed analysis in Chapters 9–10 of the attempts of Charles III (1759–1788) and his ministers fundamentally to restructure the imperial commercial system and develop the American mining industry in the last third of the eighteenth century.
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- Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 1997