The legacy of Earl J. Hamilton. New data for the study of prices in Spain, 1650–1800

Abstract

This paper presents a new dataset on regional prices in Early Modern Spain. Earl J. Hamilton published in the American Treasure and The Price Revolution in Spain, 1500–1650 prices for the four regions in which he divided Spain – Valencia, Andalusia, Old Castile-León and New Castile- but this was not the case in War and Prices in Spain, 1651–1800. Here he printed only prices for the last region. Nevertheless, he presented indices of prices and salaries throughout the book for the three remaining regions for which the raw data is preserved in the archive of his personal papers at Duke University. Having access to the cards and worksheets where prices from primary sources were computed allows us, firstly, to recover the prices for Old Castile-León, Andalusia and Valencia and to discover how the series for each region and period were built; secondly, to test their validity for purposes other than those he sought. Finally, the prices of some selected goods for the period 1651–1800 are reconstructed, analysed and published.