Spain, Europe, and the 'Spanish Miracle', 1700-1900

A challenging re-examination of Spanish history, questioning orthodoxies about Spain's economy and society.

David Ringrose here re-examines the history of Spain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He challenges the pessimism of prevailing assumptions about Spanish history, and its conventional separation into pre- and post-Napoleonic eras. Spain, Europe, and the 'Spanish Miracle', 1700–1900 also questions the importance of the empire for Spain's own economy, suggesting instead that Spain evolved as part of Europe; indeed, some of the recently documented modernisation of the nineteenth century was already well under way in the eighteenth. In addition, the emergence of a governing élite closely tied to provincial society is placed in the context of traditional networks of patronage based upon close-knit family ties. Such a perspective makes the transitions of the 1930s and 1970s easier to explain. This important and challenging book will change our understanding of the history of modern Spain.

Part I. The Problems of Perception: 1. Perceptions and perspectives; 2. Focusing the problem; 3. Glimpses of the Spanish economy; Part II. Peninsular Spain and a Changing World: 4. The Indies trade and a peninsular economy to 1763; 5. Indies trade and peninsular economy between 18th and 19th centuries: reform, crisis, adaptation; 6. Trade, economic expansion, European context; 7. From enlightenment to commodity: redefining resources; Part III. Alternative Responses to a Changing World: 8. The Mediterranean urban system: trade, hierarchy, trends; 9. Cantabrian Spain: from Guípuzcoa to Galicia; capital city, markets, and Castillian interior; 10. Towns and cities in Andalusia; Part IV. Networks, Provincial Elites and Central Authority: 11. A narrative context; 12. Basic institutions of political and economic life: family, town, office; 13. Office, state, and local elites, seventeenth-nineteenth centuries; 14. Conclusion: trends, events, perceptions.

In his important re-examination, David Ringrose challenges conventional approaches to Spanish history, placing Spain in a European economic context, and examining the emergence of a governing elite. This challenging book will change our understanding of the history of modern Spain.