Enlightened narratives and imperial rivalry in Bourbon Spain: The case of Alḿdovar 's Historia Poĺtica de los Establecimientos Ultramarinos de las Naciones Europeas (1784-1790)

Eighteenth Century

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 2007, Pages

  Paquette, Gabriel ^a  

^a TRINITY COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61149200768     PISSN: 01935380     EISSN: 19350201     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/ecy.2007.0004     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. Enlightened narratives, according to J. G. A. Pocock, are histories that conflate narratives of "state formation and the civilization of commerce which combine to produce philosophical history"; see Barbarism and Religion, Volume II: Narratives of Civil Government (Cambridge, 1999), 20-21
2. On the Black Legend, see J. H. Elliott, The Old World and the New 1492-1650 (Cambridge, 1970), 94-97
3. Ricardo Garća Ćrcel, La Leyenda Negra: Historia y Opinion (Madrid, 1992)
4. Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France c. 1500-1800 (New Haven, 1995), 87, 116
5. And Benjamin Keen, "The Black Legend Revisited: Assumptions and Realities," Essays in the Intellectual History of Colonial Latin America (Boulder, 1998), 70-86
6. On the Spanish refutation of the Black Legend in the eighteenth century, see P. J. Hauben, "White Legend Against Black: Nationalism and Enlightenment in a Spanish Context," The Americas 34 (1977): 1-19
7. And Javier Yagüe Bosch, "Defensa de Espana y Conquista de America en el Siglo XVIII: Cadalso y Forner" Dieciocho 28 (2005): 121-40
8. For classic studies of the Bourbon reform period, see Richard Herr, The Eighteenth-Century Revolution in Spain (Princeton, 1958)
9. A. Brading, "Bourbon Spain and its American Empire," The Cambridge History of Latin America (Cambridge, 1984)
10. John Lynch, Bourbon Spain 1700-1808 (Oxford, 1989)
11. And Stanley and Barbara Stein, Apogee of Empire: Spain and New Spain in the Age of Charles III, 1759-1789 (Baltimore and London, 2003)
12. For a review of the most recent historiography of Bourbon Spain, see Gabriel Paquette, "Empire, Enlightenment and Regalism: New Directions in Eighteenth-Century Spanish History," European History Quarterly 35 no. 1 (2005): 107-17
13. The conflicts, of varying degrees of intensity, ranged from full-fledged war during the Seven Years' War, clashes over the Falkland Islands, contention over British smuggling in the Caribbean and logwood operations on the Mosquito Coast, Spanish involvement in the American War of Independence, and wrangling over the Nootka Sound. Relations with France, of course, were mainly cordial due to the successive Family Compacts. For an excellent overview of Anglo-Bourbon rivalry, see H. M. Scott, The Birth of a Great Power System 1740-1815 (Harlow, 2006), esp. ch. 8, "The Anglo-Bourbon Struggle Overseas and in Europe, 1763-1788," 21-43
14. This phenomenon was not unique to Spain. For French observers, the Spanish monarchy served as an example of financial and colonial mismanagement. See Paul Cheney, "Finances, Philosophical History and the 'Empire of Climate': Enlightenment Historiography and Political Economy," Historical Reflections 31 (2005), 141-67, esp. 148-54
15. J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (London, 1980), 187
16. Sebastĩo José de Carvalho e MeIo [later Pombal], Escritos Economicos de Londres (1741-1742), ed. José Barreto (Lisbon, 1986), 158
17. Also quoted in Kenneth Maxwell's seminal article "Pombal and the Nationalization of the Luso-Brazilian Economy," Hispanic American Historical Review 48 no. 4 (1968): 608-31,608
18. Such observations corroborate C. A. Bayly's recent thesis that modernity is a "process of emulation and borrowing" (The Birth of the Modern World 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons [Oxford, 2004], 10)
19. Istvan Hont, Jealousy of Trade: International Competition and the Nation-State in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, Mass., 2005), 115-17
20. John Iverson, "Introduction: Forum on Emulationin France, 1750-1800"Eighteenth-Century Studies 36 no. 2 (2003): 217-23,218
21. Quoted in Hont, 118 and 122; Richard Drayton provides further evidence of this phenomenon and suggests how English officials "came to imitate the styles of government, copy the institutions and respond to the ideologies of their [continental] contemporaries" in Nature's Government: Science, Imperial Britain and the "Improvement"of the World (New Haven and London, 2000), 68
22. Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759] (Amherst, N.Y, 2000), pt. 6, sect. 2, ch. 2,335-36
23. John Shovlin, "Emulation in Eighteenth-Century French Economic Thought,"Eigh-teenth-Century Studies 36 no. 2 (2003): 224-30,226
24. Juan Pablo Forner, Oratín Apologética por la Espana y Su Mérito Literario (Badajoz, 1788), 19
25. Jeronimo de Uzţriz, The Theory and Practice of Commerce and Maritime Affairs (London, 1751), 2:423
26. Pedro Rodŕguez de Campomanes, Discurso Sobre la Educacín popular de los Artesanos y su Fomento (Madrid, 1775), 79
27. Maŕa Teresa Nava Rodŕguez, "Reformismo Ilustrado y Americanismo: La Real Academia de la Historia, 1735-1792" (Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1989), 683
28. Nava Rodriguez, "La Real Academia de la Historia Como Modelo entre el Estado y la Cultura," Cuadernos de Historia Moderna y Contempoŕnea 8 (1987): 127-55, 146
29. Eva Velasco Moreno, "Las Academias de la Historia en el Siglo XVIII: Una Comparacion entre Francia y Espaft̃," El Mundo Hispanico en el Siglo de las Luces (Madrid, 1996), 1321-38,1324
30. On the diversity of academies in eighteenth-century Spain, see Antonio Risco, "Sobre la Nocín de 'Academia' en el Siglo XVIII Espãol," Boletin del Centro Estudios de Siglo XVIII [Oviedo] (1983): 36-57
31. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [1776] (New York, 2001), 361-62
32. Antonio Porlier y Sopranis [Marqués de Bajamar], "Speech to the Council of the Indies (1804),"Marqués de Bajamar, Discursos al Consejo de Indias, ed. Maria Soledad Campos Diez (Madrid, 2002), 169-70
33. I do not recapitulate the debate over the introduction of Robertson in Spain, as it already has received thorough treatment by scholars. For an analysis of Robertson's views on Spain, see Brading, The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State, 1492-1867 (Cambridge, 1991)
34. On his positive appraisal, see Paquette, "The Image of Imperial Spain in British Political Thought, 1750-1800," Bulletin of Spanish Studies 81 no. 2 (2004): 187-214, esp. 202-6
35. For a brilliant and pioneering treatment of the reception of Robertson in Spain, see Jorge Cãizares-Esguerra, How to Write the History of the New World: Histories, Epistemologies and Identities in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World (Stan-ford, 2001)
36. Juan Bautista Mũoz, Letter to King Charles III, 8 June 1779, reproduced in R[eal] A[cademia de] H[istoria], Catalogo de la Colecĩn de Don Juan Bautista Mũoz: Documentes Interesantes para la Historia de America (Madrid, 1956), 3:xli-xliii
37. For a treatment of Mũoz's participation in the various polemics of his epoch, see Carlos William de Onis, "Juan Bautista Mũoz: Ensayista de la Ilustracĩn"(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado, 1980), esp. 83-126
38. Mũoz, Historia del Nuevo Mundo (Valencia, 1990), 25
39. See also Anthony Tudisco, "America in Some Travelers, Historians and Political Economists of the Spanish Eighteenth Century,"The Americas 15 (1958): 15
40. And N. Rodriguez, "Robertson, Juan Bautista Mũoz y la Academia de la Historia,̃Bolet́n de la Real Academia de la Historia 187 (1990): 435-56
41. José de Guevara Vasconcelos, Speech to the Royal Academy of History, 10 November 1791, reproduced in Cat́logo de la Colecćon de Don Juan Bautista Mũoz, 3:ci, cxiv
42. Nicolas Rodŕguez Laso, "Elogio Hist́rico del Excelent́simo Sẽor Duque de Almod́var, Director de la Real Academia de la Historia"(Madrid, 1795), x. N. B. the Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed after the fall of Pombal's ministry
43. On Spanish diplomats in the eighteenth century, see Didier Ozanam, "La Eleccín de los Diploḿticos Espaftoles en el Siglo XVIII (1700-1808)," Sociedad, Administracín y Poder en la Espãa del Antigua Ŕgimen, ed. J. L. Castellano (Granada, 1996), 11-23, esp. 12-13
44. A. G. S., Estado 7005, Almod́var to Floridablanca, 25 May 1779
45. Eduardo MaIo de Luque [Duke of Almod́var], Historia Poĺtica de los Establecimientos Ultramarinos de las Naciones Europeas, 5 vols. (Madrid, 1795), 2: appendix, 5
46. Almod́var, Historia Politica, 2: appendix, 6
47. On Justamond, see Anthony Strugnell, "La Réception de l'Histoire des Deux Indes en Angleterre au Dix-Huitième Siècle," Lectures de Raynal: l'Histoire des Deux Indes en Europe et en Amérique au XVIII Siècle, ed. Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink and Manfred Tietz (Oxford, 1991), 256-58
48. For a stimulating recent analysis of the views of Raynal and Diderot on colonies, see Sankar Muthu, Enlightenment Against Empire (Princeton, 2003), 106
49. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 1:v, vii; 2:viii
50. For a diagrammatic account of the differences between Raynal's and Almod́var 's texts, see Antonio Truyol Serra, "Nota Sobre la Versín Castellana de la Obra de Raynal," Homenaje al Prof. Carlos Ollero 'Estudios de Ciencia Poĺtica y Sotiologia (Madrid, 1972), 876-78
51. See also Manfred Tietz, "L'Espagne et l'Histoire des Deux Indes de l'abbé Raynal," in Lüsebrink and Tietz, 99-130. N. B.: there may have been personal as well as political-intellectual reasons for Almod́var's omission of America: he was fully aware that Mũoz had received a commission in 1779 to write a history of America. Fear of redundancy, combined with personal friendship with Mũoz, may help to explain this curious absence
52. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, 8
53. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 1:380
54. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, vii
55. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, 125
56. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, 209
57. Additional contemporary Spanish writers criticized Britain for "operating semi-tyrannies in its colonies. .. [by which Britain] has subverted its empire in the Indies" see B. P R. 11/2866, Josef Fuertes, "Pensamientos, o Proyecto Sobre Volver a Reconciliar con la Madre Patria las Pro vincias Discolas de la Aḿrica Meridional" (1781), fos., 248-49 passim
58. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, 4
59. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 12
60. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 3: appendix, 67
61. Juan Sempere y Guarinos, "Eduardo MaIo de Luque,"Ensayo de Una Biblioteca Espãola de los Mejores Escritores del Reynado de Carlos III (Madrid, 1786), 4:1
62. Gaspar Malchor de Jovellanos, quoted in Fernando Baras Escoĺ, "Poĺtica e Historia en la Espãa del Siglo XVIII: Las Concepciones Historiogŕficas de Jovellanos," Boletin de la Real Academia de Historia 191, no. 2 (1994): 351
63. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 5:54
64. Ovidio Garća Regueiro, "Intereses Estamentales y Pensamiento Economico: La Version Espãola de la 'Historia' de Raynal," Moneda y Crédite 149 (1979): 88
65. In addition to the rapacity of which he accused them, Raynal contended that privileged companies never recovered, through the duties they levied, the money advanced to them; on this theme, see W R. Womack, "Eighteenth-Century Themes in the Histoire Philosophique et Politique des Deux Indes of Guillaume Raynal," Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 96 (1972): 129-265
66. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 2: appendix, 23
67. The secondary literature on Spanish economic debates is vast. Among the best treatments in Spanish are Marcelo Bitar Letayf, Economistas Espanoles del Siglo XVIII: Sus Ideas sobre la Libertad del Comercio con Indias (Madrid, 1968)
68. Enrique Fuentes Quintana, ed., Economia y Economistas Espãoles, Volume 3: La Ilustracín (Barcelona, 2000)
69. And Mariano Garcia Ruiperez, "El Pensamiento Economico Ilustrado y las Compãias de Comercio," Revista de Historia Ecońmica 4 no. 3 (1986): 521-48
70. In English, among the best studies are Robert Sidney Smith, "The Wealth of Nations in Spain and Hispanic America, 1780-1830," Journal of Political Economy 65 no. 1 (1957): 104-25
71. Stein and Stein, Apogee of Empire; and, more generally, Lars Magnusson, Mercantilism: The Shaping of an Economic language (London and New York, 1994)
72. Emma Rothschild, "Global Commerce and the Question of Sovereignty in the Eighteenth-Century Provinces," Modern Intellectual History 1 (2004): 3-25, 9
73. B. P. R. 11/2666, Miguel Antonio de Gandara, "Apuntes para Formar un Discurso Sobre el Bien y el Mal de Espãa"(1759), fo. 135
74. Josef Alonso Ortiz, translator's preface, Adam Smith, Investigatín de la Naturaleza y Causas de la Riqueza de las Nationes (Valladolid, 1794)
75. Almod́var, Historia Poĺtica, 5:93, 382-83
76. For a fuller treatment of Almod́var's aspirations for a Philippines trading company, see Ovidio Garcia Regueiro, "Manila, Acapulco y Ćdiz: Una Conceptín del Comercio Espãol con Oriente en el Siglo XVIII," Cuadernos Hispanoamericanos 409 (1984): 5-35
77. See W L. Schurz, "The Royal Philippine Company," Hispanic American Historical Review 3 (1920): 491-508,494
78. B. P. R. 11/2879, Felix de Maquina, "Informe Relativo al Estado de Aquellas Mas, su Fomento y Producciones" (1790), fo. 14Ov. See Stetson Conn, Gibraltar in British Diplomacy in the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, 1942), 220-21
79. See, for example, Josep M. Fradera, Filipinas, La Colonia Mas Peculiar: La Hacienda Publica en la Definitín de la Poĺtica Colonial 1762-1868 (Madrid, 1999), 87
80. Lourdes D́az-Trechuelo, "El Comercio de Filipinas durante la Segunda Mitad del Siglo XVIII," Revista de Indias 23 (1963): 463-85
81. P. Michael McKinley, Pre-Revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy and Society 1777-1811 (Cambridge, 1985), 114
82. On the failure to supply slaves to meet demand in Caracas, see James Ferguson King, "Evolution of the Free Slave Trade Principle in Spanish Colonial Administration," Hispanic American Historical Review 22 (1942): 34-56,49-50
83. Stein and Stein, The Colonial Heritage of Latin America: Essays on Economic Dependence in Perspective (New York, 1970), 92