Historia Ibérica. Economía y sociedad en los siglos XVIII y XIX

This is the first volume in a projected annual series devoted preferentially, but not exclusively, to recent social and economic history of the Iberian peninsula. The editorial board, which includes Clara Lida, Iris Zavala, and Nicolas Sánchez-Albornoz, has called for contributions from Hispanists in French, English, and the peninsular Romance languages. Volume I focuses primarily on the eighteenth century. An article by Pierre Vilar reinterprets the motín de Esquiladle as a primitive agrarian revolt similar to the Guerre des Farines in France ten years later. Iris Zavala sheds new light on the abortive San Blas Revolution of 1795. Perhaps the most interesting article is by David Ringrose, who proposes a more sophisticated model to analyze the “dual economy” of eighteenth-century Spain and to relate its economic and political history. The research of Ringrose, and of Barbara and Stanley Stein, indicates that the economic expansion of the eighteenth century, including Spanish colonial trade, may have been overestimated. In the final article, Gabriel Tortella analyzes the economic stagnation of nineteenthcentury Spain and attributes it to social rigidity and counterproductive government economic policies. If this first volume is representative, Historia Ibérica will become an important outlet for scholarly research in Iberian history.