Starting from the question about the potential contribution of entrepreneurial history to the general formation of the students of economics and business, this article contends that this contribution may be very positive, provided that an approach more analitic than merely descriptive is adopted on the teachers' side. For it, the nature of the firm and the causes and consequences of changes in her organization and size should occupy a central place in their explanations, by means of a balance between theory and history. In the first part of the article a review is provided of the theories on the nature of the firm, with special focus on the transaction costs approach, and of the American business history, devoted to the study of the enterprise in that country along the past century. In a second part, some thoughts ans suggestions are given in order to extend the same kind of analysis to other countries and periods.

The censos constitute an instrument of credit the assessment of which has been the object of numerous controversies on the part of both economists of the period and present day historians.

The aim of the work here presented is to increase our knowledge of them, analyzing aspects such as geographical distribution of the lienees, the sociology of both creditors and debtors, the amounts of the loans, the mortgages against wich they were charged or their redemption. We attempt to discover their incidence in the region of La Sagra during the eighteenth century so as to arrive at conclusions wich will allow us to judge their advantages and disadvantages as a means of loan.

As the main source of information we have made exhaustive use of the deposit and redemption deeds of the censos to be found in the legal protocols of the Provincial Historical Archive of Toledo.

Campomanes' economic ideas can not be adequately understood only in terms of the economic thought prevailing in 18th century Europe; it is also necessary to consider his origins, life and professional progress. As a general attorney —and, later, as governor— of the Council of Castile, the Asturian gentleman was perfectly fitted in the social and political system of the Old Regime. He attempted to introduce in the Spanish economy the elements of market rationality that the system could accept, but he did not go beyond.

Campomanes was neither a mercantilist nor a physiocratic economist. He thought necessary to promote both agriculture and manufacture and he was always worried with social problems. Campomanes fought to stabilize tenant-farmers on the land and to extend technical education among people; he tried to promote free markets against official prices, controls, privileges and monopolies; and he supported the creation of a public bank in the hope that it would help to movilise savings and to foster production.

By using an analysis of the utilization of public resources by the liberal Spanish on the island of Cuba, the current report attempts to link the colonial world with the liberal Revolution in Spain. The study shows a series of incomes and expediture by the Cuban Colonial Treasure between 1826 and 1840. Its study reveals even increasing fiscal incomes on the island during this period. Concerning expenditure, the important chapter of sobrantes or cantidades remitidas a la península, deserves recognition, as it shows the availability of a good proportion of the public resources of the Colony to settle Metropolis' needs.

In 1930 the province of Guipúzcoa stood amont the most prosperous and heavily industrialized in Spain. In the following years it found itself affected by several circunstances which brought about the fall of its manufacturing activity: dwindling foreign trade, a shift of the political systems, a new frame of labour relations… All that had a very special effect throughout Guipúzcoa, mostly characterized by the small size of its enterprises, the diversification of its production and its close links with foreing markets. As a backdrop lies the inadequacy of the different governmentes to harmonize the disparate and conflicting interests of the mixed economic areas of Spain.

The making of this work has had the invauable guidance of professors Montserrat Garate, Pablo Martín Aceña and Luis Castells. Noretheless their assistance may not have prevented possible maccuracies whose responsability is to be solely attributed to its author.

En un artículo publicado hace dos años en esta Revista aludí a unas «determinaciones» o «disensiones» de Franciso de Vitoria, no fechadas, y recogidas en un manuscrito que las presenta a continuación del dictamen que la Universidad de París emitió el 13 de julio de 1530, a petición de los mercaderes de la colonia española de Amberes, lo que las hace, aparentemente, complementarias del mismo, ambigüedad que mantiene Jean-Albert Goris cuando las dio a conocer en 1925, ya que se limita a señalar que el dictamen de la Universidad no incluía entre los firmantes a Vitoria.

El Departamento de Economía Aplicada de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de Granada ha celebrado, los días 10 al 11 de enero de 1991, el I Seminario de Historia de la Empresa. Han colaborado a su realización el Banco de Granada y el ICE (Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación) de la Universidad.