Economic growth and inequality. Three centuries of spanish economic development, 1500-1800

Abstract

Fernando Ramos-Palencia examines the dramatic transformation in the position of the Spanish economy between 1500 and 1800. Spain began the period as one of the richest regions of Europe and it was over the course of the seventeenth century that Spanish pre-eminence began its decline. Subsequently in spite of some periods of economic growth, the gap between Spain and the major European powers only widened. Taxation demands and environmental degradation are added to the traditional explanations for the long decline of the Spanish economy. Liquidity problems were worsened by depopulation, plague and poor harvests. Attempted reforms under the Bourbon monarchy had no more than limited success. The Spanish economy became increasingly marked by great regional disparity, with the decline of the Madrid-Seville axis and the Mediterranean playing an ever more important role. This divergence was one factor in the marked inequality evident in late eighteenth century Spain and beyond.