Luis Perdices de Blas

Blanco White, Spanish America, and Economic Affairs: The Slave Trade and Colonial Trade

Blanco White was one of the most important Spanish intellectuals of the first half of the nineteenth century. Being exiled in England (1810–41) and speaking English fluently enabled him to meet some of the period’s greatest economists, such as Malthus, Whately, Senior, and Mill. Despite this and his having been trained initially as a businessman, he devoted no special attention to economics. Nonetheless, he tackled certain topics of undoubted socioeconomic importance, such as the slave trade and the colonial question and overseas trade. This work aims to contextualize the way Blanco treated these topics within the framework of his Spanish contemporaries, to show that his approach was rooted in a Spanish tradition of thinking. Blanco was already familiar in Spain with some approaches to the slave trade and the colonial question, approaches that he would later fully develop in England.

REDISCOVERING AMERICA: POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SPANISH COLONIES ACCORDING TO THE EXPLORERS JUAN-ULLOA, MALASPINA AND HUMBOLDT

Two scientists and sailors from the Spanish Navy, Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, the Italian sailor and explorer Alessandro Malaspina, and the German sage Alexander von Humboldt were the main actors in three great voyages to Spanish America between the second-third of the 18 th century and the beginning of the 19 th century. This enabled them to provide three first hand « photographs » of the state of the Spanish empire in America at three different moments in time: approximately before, during and after the implementation of colonial reforms designed in the reigns of Ferdinand VI and Charles III. This work aims, in the first place, to compare the socio-economic views of Spanish America deriving from the three expeditions, highlighting similarities and differences. Second, this work aims to connect the analysis of the weaknesses of the politico-institutional organisation of Spanish colonies, which the four travellers did at first hand, with the present debate on the role of colonial institutions in long-term economic development.

La imagen económica de la España del siglo XVII: la mirada extranjera frente a la visión de los arbitristas

Abstract Este trabajo compara la imagen económica de la España del siglo XVII que nos transmitieron los viajeros extranjeros con la ofrecida por los arbitristas, examinando las principales similitudes y diferencias. En concreto, se detiene en las siguientes cuestiones: la consideración del medio natural, la visión del carácter nacional y de su relación con las actividades productivas, y la percepción de la situación económica y de las causas del atraso. Se trata de contrastar la opinión de aquellos que estaban reflexionando ‘desde dentro’ sobre las causas de la llamativa decadencia del país, con la mirada libre y sin censuras del visitante extranjero, que ― pese a sus condicionantes y limitaciones ― tendía a fijarse en los aspectos más llamativos y diferentes respecto a la realidad de su propio país de origen. Abstract This paper compares the economic image of seventeenth-century Spain given by foreign travellers with that offered by the arbitristas, examining the principal similarities and differences. Specifically, it analyses the following issues: the consideration of the natural resources base, the vision of national character and its relation to productive activities, and the perception of the economic situation and the causes of backwardness. The aim is to contrast the views of those who were thinking ‘from the inside’ about the causes of the evident decline of the country, with the free and uncensored gaze of foreign visitors, who, despite the obvious constraints and limitations, tended to focus on the most striking and different aspects they found compared to the reality of their own countries.