| Popis: |
Spanish economic historians have devoted years of work and a multitude of papers and books to study the causes of Spain’s economic backwardness in the modern era. There are two wide groups of causes which are more frequently cited: geographical conditions (insufficient rainfall, aridity, mountainous terrain, non-navigable rivers), and human causes. These can be divided into historical legacies (feudal and oppressive institutions such as the Inquisition or the Mesta, traditional patterns of thought and conduct, intolerance) and errors of policy (some blame protectionism, others free-trade, inefficient taxation, etc.). Adam Smith, for example, thought that Spain’s mercantilism had been the cause of its economic decline (1937 [1776], pp. 575ff). Of course, the causes just listed cannot be neatly separated. Some historical legacies are in part due to physical and geographical features: the Mesta, for instance, a powerful organization of sheep owners, was in part a consequence of land aridity, and so on. |
