Distant Tyranny
Markets, Power, and Backwardness in Spain, 1650-1800
1st Edition
Published on 8. January 2012
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-0-691-14484-9 (ISBN)
Description
Spain's development from a premodern society into a modern unified nation-state with an integrated economy was painfully slow and varied widely by region. Economic historians have long argued that high internal transportation costs limited domestic market integration, while at the same time the Castilian capital city of Madrid drew resources from surrounding Spanish regions as it pursued its quest for centralization. According to this view, powerful Madrid thwarted trade over large geographic distances by destroying an integrated network of manufacturing towns in the Spanish interior. Challenging this long-held view, Regina Grafe argues that decentralization, not a strong and powerful Madrid, is to blame for Spain's slow march to modernity. Through a groundbreaking analysis of the market for bacalao--dried and salted codfish that was a transatlantic commodity and staple food during this period--Grafe shows how peripheral historic territories and powerful interior towns obstructed Spain's economic development through jurisdictional obstacles to trade, which exacerbated already high transport costs.
She reveals how the early phases of globalization made these regions much more externally focused, and how coastal elites that were engaged in trade outside Spain sought to sustain their positions of power in relation to Madrid. Distant Tyranny offers a needed reassessment of the haphazard and regionally diverse process of state formation and market integration in early modern Spain, showing how local and regional agency paradoxically led to legitimate governance but economic backwardness.
She reveals how the early phases of globalization made these regions much more externally focused, and how coastal elites that were engaged in trade outside Spain sought to sustain their positions of power in relation to Madrid. Distant Tyranny offers a needed reassessment of the haphazard and regionally diverse process of state formation and market integration in early modern Spain, showing how local and regional agency paradoxically led to legitimate governance but economic backwardness.
Reviews / Votes
Winner of the 2013 Gyorgy Ranki Biennial Prize, Economic History Association "An economic historian of early modern Spain and its empire, Grafe examines Spain from 1650 to 1800 through a multidisciplinary lens to explore the limited extent to which it was emerging as a nation-state with integrated domestic markets... Distant Tyranny is a revisionist work that will become mandatory reading for historians of early modern Spain... [A] stimulating, thoughtful book."--Choice "There is little to quibble with in Grafe's work. The early chapters build a solid foundation, based on detailed archival research and a meticulous tracing of market behavior... [O]ne cannot help but admire the combination of a detailed, erudite analysis with a coherent macro-historical logic... In a rare feat for an economic history book, Distant Tyranny may yet shed as much light on current events as it does on the past."--Mauricio Drelichman, EH.net "Grafe's book, with its comparative approach and thorough documentation on Spain's economic and political fluctuations between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries constitutes a major contribution to this reinterpretation of early modern Europe and Spain's role in its economic history."--Jesus Cruz, Human Figurations "[A] spirited and engaging study built around a strong, step-by-step argument... Distant Tyranny offers a consistently intelligent and probing exercise in both economic and political history."--James S. Amelang, Sixteenth Century Journal "Grafe's excellent book joins the growing stack of studies that aim to strike down, once and for all, the tyranny of the shoddy teleology of Spanish historical development that miraculously has survived centuries of contrary evidence."--Ruth Mackay, American Historical Review "Grafe's Distant Tyranny constitutes a provocative and fruitful historical exercise that provides a convincing narrative regarding the sources and historical consequences of market integration in Spain. The author offers a study that will appeal to a myriad of scholars, ranging from ones interested in general debates about how economics and politics interact to ones more specifically focused on Spanish history. In either case, the book puts forward new and exciting ideas to be further explored and debated. If historiography is supposed to be a reflective and anti-conformist practice, these pages serve as an excellent example."--Alejandro Garcia Monton, European Review of HistoryMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
4 Maps
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
567 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-14484-9 (9780691144849)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2011
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
from
€49.09
Available for download
Person
Regina Grafe is associate professor of history at Northwestern University.
Content
Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Chapter 1: M arkets and States 1 Chapter 2: Tracing the Market: The Empirical Challenge 38 Chapter 3: Bacalao: A New Consumer Good Takes on the Peninsula 52 Chapter 4: The Tyranny of Distance: Transport and Markets in Spain 80 Chapter 5: D istant Tyranny: The Historic Territories 116 Chapter 6: D istant Tyranny: The Power of Urban Republics 165 Chapter 7: M arket Growth and Governance in Early Modern Spain 190 Chapter 8: C enter and Peripheries 213 Conclusions 241 A Note on the Sources 247 Bibliography 251 Index 281