XVIII - History Lab

Mayorazgo. Feudal Property in Castile (1369-1836)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

Clavero’s words are framed between the second half of the 18th century and the 19th century. At this time, the enlightened and reformers proposed changes aimed at modernising the country, a claim that was not always in line with the interests of other social groups, in this case the nobility. The struggle against these institutions, which according to the Enlightenment had hindered economic progress, took place as these reforms found some support in political power. Little by little, legislation would attempt to intervene in this type of feudal regimes in order to obtain greater tax revenues as well as greater political intervention. The bourgeoisie sought with this type of reform to consolidate political power on a territorial level, for which the power of the lords was an obstacle. At the same time, they wanted to establish a capitalist economy, which required the abolition of this feudal institution. For the monarchy, the interest lay in meeting the increase in state expenditure, which, according to Francisco Javier Guillamon Alvarez, had become burdensome since the end of the 18th century.

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Anonymous manuscript

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

Professor David Bernabé Gil analysed an anonymous document among the papers of the University of Orihuela, which he dated approximately 1780. This text is a charge against the liberalising measures that were being put in place in the time of Carlos III. In the fragment of the text cited, three aspects were pointed out which needed to be rectified in Spain and which free trade was aggravating. The first concerns the situation of agriculture, which the author states should be promoted as a pillar of the state. This is the most tangible example of the persistence of a certain type of thinking linked to physiocracy, which pointed to agriculture as the main wealth of kingdoms and states. At the same time, the situation of the peasants was pointed out, whose life was one of misery and indebtedness, a situation that had favoured the merchants who had used free trade to exploit them and leave them in a situation of prostration. The second maxim was to strengthen local arts and crafts. To this end, he proposed raising prices so that they could find a place in the market (local and foreign) without having to resort to imports. In this way, the author understands that imports, apart from weakening local industry, serve foreign interests, normally associated with states that are enemies of the monarchy and that would benefit from Spanish money. As for the last problem, he pointed out the need to cut back on the huge profits of the clergy and the nobility. These privileged groups benefited from free trade by being able to sell grain at a good price, so their wealth had to be curtailed by cutting their rents or imposing taxes on their land.

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Power, honour and elites in the 18th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

Once the period of the War of Succession was over, with the destruction and loss of documents caused, the new political power announced the creation of the Royal Library. The Eeal library became the current National Library and its origin was surrounded by many intricacies. It was an initiative that clashed with Philip V’s profile as a monarch, who was more inclined to play cards than to read books. The idea had deeper and more complex roots. It was in fact an initiative of Philip V’s confessors, one of the many royalist measures that were being introduced with the new political power. For Jesús Pradells Nadal, the concentration of works in the hands of the political power responded to a need to control publications and also to make it easier to justify the new political power. Works (books, coins, manuscripts, etc.) were acquired both through the purchase of the collections of members of the nobility and the intellectual elite and through confiscations. In 1716, Philip V issued a decree establishing the new library. The decree of 2 June 1716 also established the number of employees and the allocation of their salaries

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Book of actual provisions of the city of Alicante, 1609

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

This proclamation was the result of a crossroads of ideas, opinions and opinions between the monarch and his councils, and as a result a series of proclamations were issued in the absence of the organisation required for the expulsion of the Moors. Once the initiative to expel this peninsular population had been decreed, debates arose over the implications of this undertaking. The clergy insisted that the children of the Moors should stay to prevent them from suffering the same sinful fate as their parents. On this initiative, the ages at which these minors should stay were debated. One of the proposed plans was the transfer of these children of Moriscos to the interior of the peninsula, where Castilian families would have to take care of them. The aim was not only to remove them from a coastal area characterised by the danger posed by the Berber ships, but also to encourage their dispersion and the forgetting of their former confessional status. In the end, however, such initiatives fell by the wayside, and the children of Moriscos seem to have remained in their respective places. Their legal status oscillated according to circumstances, from slavery to an acceptable upbringing. Since then, according to Mario Martínez Gomis, they have been lost track of, with the exception of a few who, at certain junctures, made reference to their confessional past as a way of highlighting any impurities in their lineage.

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Aranda to Wall

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

This is a text written by Aranda describing Spain’s diplomatic situation vis-à-vis England and France. This duality of powers in Spain’s position is indicative of the polarisation that had taken place in Europe with the hegemony of the two powers. Spain, which enjoyed a period of peace under Ferdinand VI, had politicians in its ranks who were in favour of establishing alliance blocs around an English or French ecosystem. However, historiography has interpreted these blocs as Anglophile or Francophile, as if Spanish politicians had an interest in promoting the rise of these powers against their monarchy. It seems that this had nothing to do with what had been believed, as Diego Tellez Alarcia says, and that this was a view that historiography uncritically took from the publicity writings against the politicians of the monarchy, with the aim of discrediting them in the public eye. Each of these politicians of the stature of Aranda, Ricardo Wall and Carvajal had in mind to establish a bloc of equilibrium according to one power or another, which they considered to be decisive in terms of its power. But they had not forgotten that, in the political game, both monarchies, the English and the French, were historical enemies of the Spanish.

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20th Cloisters Book

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

Until the 18th century, the university system did not depend on a political authority from which curricula and operational guidelines emanated. In the ancien régime, the nobility, the church, private individuals or the king could promote universities. In this case, the universities pro religione were those promoted by the regular orders such as the Jesuits. However, as early as the 18th century, the Enlightenment criticised the fact that this type of university, controlled by the regular orders, conditioned the education of students according to their affiliation to one order or another, as well as the fact that their students were too easily awarded the relevant degrees because their academic value was recognised. The Enlightenment tried to centralise education in order to establish quality criteria for it. A necessary step was the secularisation of education in the hands of the Jesuit order in 1768, which the Enlightenment wanted to extend to all other regular orders. Since then, the number of graduates and doctors has declined. In this case, the present text is a complaint by a religious about the provisions of Charles III in this line.

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Complete library of education orinstructions for young ladies

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

In the 18th century, education became a subject of enormous importance. The advent of the Enlightenment led to a wide dissemination of scientific publications, welcoming other platforms that had hitherto been developing underground, such as societies of scholars who exchanged correspondence. This preoccupation with education and knowledge included women who were also concerned about the state of women’s education at the time. Writers and educators such as Mme Le Prince de Beaumont advocated a female education that would bring women up to the level of knowledge of men. She strongly criticised the disregard for women’s aptitudes and argued that women had intellectual capacities that should be exercised. These publications were of great importance in France and England, and her writings were translated and spread to other places such as Spain. This was a moment of great importance in which women’s writings were beginning to gain importance. A few years after the death of Mme Le Prince de Beaumont, the French Revolution broke out and in 1799 Olympe presented the Declaration of the Rights of Women and of the Citizen.

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Study course for the instruction of the Prince of Parma

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

The Abbé Condillac was a leading figure of the Enlightenment. Trained for a religious life, he did not take the habit and completed his education in science and pedagogy. His active academic life led him to be presented as preceptor to the nephew of Louis XV in Parma. There he wrote his 13-volume publication entitled “Cours d’études pour l’instruction du Prince de Parme” in which he was to train the young monarch. His enormous interest in pedagogy enabled him to present a method that he himself pointed out as novel and relevant for training the prince. In this case, the fragment highlights his empiricist side, where he calls on the prince to know things through experience in order to obtain true knowledge of things as opposed to already established systems. The structure of his publication also draws from another great preceptor, the abbé Fénelon, who had trained the grandsons of Louis XIV and the dauphin of France.

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Charter XXVIII

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

This text excerpt describes Alexander Jardine’s position on the function of the state at its worst. He understands that the control mechanisms of this superstructure were intended to make a thorough study of the material and human capacities of the kingdom in question in order to be able to extract resources more effectively. It was thus the case that the most sophisticated and interventionist state was in fact the one that impoverished its subjects the most. This view stems from his conception of the state, which differed from other personalities of his time, such as Campomanes, who conceived of the state in its centralising aspect and as an entity that imposed order. Jardine, on the other hand, and like Montesquieu, conceived of the state as a guarantor of security and freedom for individuals.

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Process in which Domingo Sánchez takes over as vine tutor with María Martín as his pupil

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

Guardianship was a recognised legal concept under the ancien régime and was characterised by the high mortality rate between the parents. In order to support minors, a guardian was appointed who, in addition to guaranteeing the minor’s education, had to pay for his or her food and other needs. For this purpose, he took the income left by the orphan’s parents as a trustee. He also had to ensure the good use of this patrimony because, ultimately, it did not belong to him and because it would become the property of the minor once he reached adulthood. The guardian had to clear up the accounts by paying the debts contracted by the parents and had to see to it as far as possible that this patrimony was increased. On most occasions this office was classified by the legislation itself as a burdensome position, as María Gema Cava López points out. On many occasions, there was a lack of interest in taking on such a laborious post (with the exception of those in which the patrimony was of great importance), which is why incentives were offered to those who would take it on, such as the concession of a tenth of the yield of the assets administered.

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