Abstract
During the Spanish ancien regime, Castilian cities, above all those with the right to vote in the Cortes and the centres of military and fiscal provinces, were ruled by oligarchies and intermediate urban classes who regarded them as a private property in which those in authority rarely performed their legal office and instead considered them as a means of upward social mobility. The venality of local office placed them in a political elite in the urban environment, provided them with important positions, and authority over substantial local fiscal resources and royal income such as servicios, millones, cientos , and alcabalas . In addition, political power provided much-desired social prestige, which was commonly associated with the status of nobility. This article addresses the social and economic origin, the and expectations of upward social mobility, of eighteenth-century regidores in Guadalajara.
Highlights
During the Spanish ancien regime, Castilian cities, above all those with the right to vote in the Cortes and the centres of military and fiscal provinces, were ruled by oligarchies and intermediate urban classes who regarded them as a private property in which those in authority rarely performed their legal office and instead considered them as a means of upward social mobility
The venality of local office placed them in a political elite in the urban environment, provided them with important positions, and authority over substantial local fiscal resources and royal income such as servicios, millones, cientos, and alcabalas
Son numerosos los estudios sobre la naturaleza social de las elites económicas, administrativas y urbanas en la España del Antiguo Régimen[1], empezando por el ya clásico estudio de Janine Fayard sobre los consejeros de Castilla en los siglos XVII y XVIII2, hasta las más recientes investigaciones sobre las oligarquías municipales de importantes ciudades castellanas como Madrid[3], Toledo[4], Murcia[5], Granada[6], de Cataluña[7] o las del Reino de Valencia[8]
Summary
RESUMEN: Durante el Antiguo Régimen español las ciudades castellanas, especialmente las de voto en Cortes, cabezas de provincia fiscal y militar, fueron regidas por oligarquías y grupos medios urbanos que las consideraron un coto cerrado en el que no siempre ejercieron la acción municipal, sino que, frecuentemente, fueron una plataforma para sus deseos de ascenso social. El origen social y económico, las expectativas de ascenso y promoción social es lo que se pretende en este artículo con el caso concreto de los regidores de Guadalajara en el siglo XVIII.
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