Constructing A Fiscal Military State In Eighteenth Century Spain (palgrave Studies In The History Of Finance)
by Rafael Torres Sánchez /
2015 / English / PDF
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Historically, Spain has often been represented as a financial
failure, a state limited by its absolutist monarchy and doomed to
fiscal and financial failure without hope of lasting growth. The
collapse of the Spanish state at the beginning of the nineteenth
century would seem to bear out this view of the limitations of
Spain's absolutist state, and this historical school of thought
presents the eighteenth century as the last episode in a long
history of decline that is directly linked to the failure of the
sixteenth-century Spanish imperial absolutist monarchy. This study
provides a different perspective, suggesting that in fact during
the eighteenth century, Spain's fiscal-military state was
reconstructed and grew. It shows how the development of the Spanish
fiscal-military state was based on different growth factors to
those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and that with
this change, most of the state's structure and its relationship
with élites and taxpayers altered irrevocably. In the ceaseless
search for solutions, the Spanish state applied a wide range of
financial and fiscal policies to expand its empire. The research in
this book is inspired by current historical discussions, and
provides a new perspective on the historical debate that often
compares English 'success' with continental 'failure'.
Historically, Spain has often been represented as a financial
failure, a state limited by its absolutist monarchy and doomed to
fiscal and financial failure without hope of lasting growth. The
collapse of the Spanish state at the beginning of the nineteenth
century would seem to bear out this view of the limitations of
Spain's absolutist state, and this historical school of thought
presents the eighteenth century as the last episode in a long
history of decline that is directly linked to the failure of the
sixteenth-century Spanish imperial absolutist monarchy. This study
provides a different perspective, suggesting that in fact during
the eighteenth century, Spain's fiscal-military state was
reconstructed and grew. It shows how the development of the Spanish
fiscal-military state was based on different growth factors to
those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and that with
this change, most of the state's structure and its relationship
with élites and taxpayers altered irrevocably. In the ceaseless
search for solutions, the Spanish state applied a wide range of
financial and fiscal policies to expand its empire. The research in
this book is inspired by current historical discussions, and
provides a new perspective on the historical debate that often
compares English 'success' with continental 'failure'.