The Bourbon Reforms in the Spanish Atlantic

Abstract

In a very basic sense, the Bourbon reforms began shortly after the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty to the Spanish throne in 1700, when Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg, died without an heir. In his will, Charles II stipulated that the Sun King’s (Louis XIV of France) grandson would become the next Spanish king. Concerned that the Bourbons now ruled over France, Spain, and their respective empires, Europe worried about the advent of “universal monarchy,” a development that contemporaries thought would upset the European balance of powers, which ultimately provoked the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714). Thus, the early Bourbon reforms must be understood in the context of this succession war, which pitted France and Spain against the other contending European powers, including Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Dutch Republic. The early Bourbon reforms were, at their core, an effort to streamline Spain’s fiscal and military efficiency to cope with the demands of war during one of the most consequential military confrontations in early modern Europe. While the Spanish crown spent much of the century attempting to restructure its fiscal system and military apparatus to meet the ever-increasing demands of war, during the second half of the century a host of Spanish ministers began to suggest that developing Spain’s military capacity was an insufficient measure to protect and increase Spain’s power in a modern commercial society. Rather, Spain also had to worry about bringing about economic improvement, a task which it could accomplish by integrating its imperial economy. It was in this context that the idea of comercio libre (free internal trade) emerged as a replacement for the highly regulated fleets and galleons system. By instituting a system of free internal trade, many argued, Spain would be able to synergize its vast territories across the world, potentially creating the conditions for the erection of a highly integrated imperial economy. In the end, this effort proved to be unrealizable, as warfare engulfed the Spanish Atlantic during the 1790s and the first few decades of the 19th century.