En una casa y mantenimiento. Estrategias familiares en Guipúzcoa durante la Edad Moderna a través del caso de la familia Zarauz

Abstract

The Basque historiography has traditionally maintained the absolute victory of the urban world over ancient nobility, causing thus its disappearance from the social and political scenes of Guipuzcoa during the Early Modern Age. Nonetheless, through to the case of the Zarauz family, we can show that these families used several marital strategies to remain linked (both socially and economically) to Guipuzkoa's elites from the 16th to the 18th centuries. This article aims to study in depth, on the one hand, the marital unions and family structures (focusing even on the intergenerational relationships and family conflicts), and, on the other hand, the evolution of the patrimony of the lineage, the sources of their wealth, the strategies and diversification of investments, and, finally, the place and prestige they had in the society of their time. The family Barroeta, Zarauz and Aldamar is a good example regarding the continuity of ancient nobility in the gipuzcoan political, economical and social scenes. This family managed to carry on, turning into important landowners, merchants and industrialist. Gradually, they went on opening their scope of action to the rest of territories lands of the Spanish Crown.