Power and Penury: Government, Technology and Science in Philip II’s Spain by David C. Goodman

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 673 Power and Penury: Government, Technology and Science in Philip IPs Spain. By David C. Goodman. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. xii + 275; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00. One key to the problem of “Spanish decadence”—the state’s relationship to scientific research and technological innovation—is addressed in this interesting study, based mainly on documents from the Archive at Simancas. David Goodman argues effectively that Philip II was open to all manner of technical innovation, was an ardent backer of scientific research, particularly in applied Helds, and was not at all the obscurantist that traditional historiography outside Spain painted him as. Beyond the king’s personal stamp, however, the protagonist of this book is war, a force that both stimulated research and invention and, through its oppressive financial demands, ensured that not much would come of either. In the first chapter, Goodman explores the vogue of occult sciences such as astrology and alchemy in the 16th century. The king is shown to be prudently skeptical. The second chapter treats cosmography and details the crown’s interest in training pilots, by establishing a chair of navigation at the Casa de Contratación (1552) and in the Academy of Mathematics (1582) in Madrid. The government went so far as to circulate a questionnaire among pilots in order to determine the desirability of modifying the standard marine astrolabe and compass. In spite of such prescience, trained pilots remained in chronically short supply. Next discussed is the technology of war. Goodman’s discussion of the problems of artillery production is particularly cogent. The Spaniards had adequate copper supplies for bronze, but no one could be found to smelt it. Hence copper was imported from Hungary and tin from England, and the founding was done in Spain by native and imported technicians. Spanish engineers were particularly good at ballistic theory, which was, however, mismatched with the crude level of gunsmithing. Engineers privy to the Italian fortification system were in great demand, and at least twenty-five Italian military engineers worked in Spain under Philip II. Many of these promoted military inventions, mainly useless, all of which were granted a formal trial by the king. The fourth chapter, on silver production, describes the most successful technical venture of this period, the large-scale mining of silver, mainly in Peru and Mexico. The crown was so strapped for funds that production at specific mines was tapped to pay specific debts. When the introduction of amalgamation with iron as a reagent caused a production revolution at the same time as it spared wood and mercury, the king was in a quandary; he needed the silver but was loath to sacrifice income from the successful mercury mining opera­ tion at Almadén. 674 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE The royal interest in medicine is the final theme. Here, as in mining, the crown attempted to assert itsjurisdiction. Spanish military medicine is portrayed as far ahead of the efforts of Spain’s neighbors. The king promoted the search for medicinal plants in his empire, with public health outweighing economic gain as a motive. Medical care, like much of the technological enterprise in Philip’s reign, was both stimulated by war and thwarted by the financial exhaustion it caused. Goodman concludes that the centralizing nature of Spanish gover­ nance influenced both scientific and technological activities. The crown directed both the training and importation of experts. Gov­ ernment control of mining, driven by the need for instant funds, stifled private interest. I doubt whether the crown’s unwillingness to draw on the reputed technical expertise of conversos (converted Jews) was as important a factor as is here supposed. The political and economic bind of Spanish hegemony could not have been overcome merely by changing the rules of elite recruitment. Thomas F. Glick Dr. Glick, professor of history at Boston University, is currently investigating the supply and use of scientific instruments in 18th-century Spain. Der Freiberger Bergbau: Technische Denkmale und Geschichte. Edited by Otfried Wagenbreth and Eberhard Wachtler. Leipzig: VEB Deutscher Verlag fur Grundstoffindustrie, 1985. Pp. 382; illustrations, tables, bibliography, indexes. DM 60.00. Among the medieval mining towns of Europe, those in...