TY - JOUR
T1 - Introduction: Mobilising Resources for the Army and Navy in the Eighteenth-Century Spanish Empire
T2 - Comparative, Transnational and Imperial Dimensions
AU - Brandon, Pepijn
AU - Ferri, Sergio Solbes
AU - Valdez-Bubnov, Iván
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - The subject of this special issue is the relationship between the material demands of warfare and the political and administrative development of the Spanish imperial system during the long eighteenth century. Its purpose is to provide a transnational and comparative perspective on the methods employed by the Spanish monarchy to mobilise resources for war, emphasising the international, imperial and inter-regional connections that underpinned Spain’s military and naval efforts. These methods implied specific types of involvement between the crown and the regional productive elites and were directly related to the capacity of the latter to mobilise resources and administer production processes. They were varied, ranging from total state administration of capital, labour and productive processes to an almost complete and relatively independent involvement of the empire’s entrepreneurial elites, in Europe, America and Asia. The introduction by the guest editors positions the four contributions to this special issue within the wider context of the historiography on the mobilisation of resources for war. In recent years, scholars in this field have started to shift their attention from a primary focus on the development of ‘fiscal-military’ and ‘fiscal-naval’ arrangements that provided the financial backbone of states’ warring activities, to the wider economic and social networks involved in supplying, recruiting, building and maintaining armies and navies. As the introduction argues, these networks, underpinning the emergence of European national states, were always inherently transnational.
AB - The subject of this special issue is the relationship between the material demands of warfare and the political and administrative development of the Spanish imperial system during the long eighteenth century. Its purpose is to provide a transnational and comparative perspective on the methods employed by the Spanish monarchy to mobilise resources for war, emphasising the international, imperial and inter-regional connections that underpinned Spain’s military and naval efforts. These methods implied specific types of involvement between the crown and the regional productive elites and were directly related to the capacity of the latter to mobilise resources and administer production processes. They were varied, ranging from total state administration of capital, labour and productive processes to an almost complete and relatively independent involvement of the empire’s entrepreneurial elites, in Europe, America and Asia. The introduction by the guest editors positions the four contributions to this special issue within the wider context of the historiography on the mobilisation of resources for war. In recent years, scholars in this field have started to shift their attention from a primary focus on the development of ‘fiscal-military’ and ‘fiscal-naval’ arrangements that provided the financial backbone of states’ warring activities, to the wider economic and social networks involved in supplying, recruiting, building and maintaining armies and navies. As the introduction argues, these networks, underpinning the emergence of European national states, were always inherently transnational.
KW - contractor state
KW - fiscal-military state
KW - Spanish Empire
KW - state formation
KW - war
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098800703&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85098800703&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07292473.2021.1860318
DO - 10.1080/07292473.2021.1860318
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85098800703
VL - 40
SP - 1
EP - 8
JO - War & Society
JF - War & Society
SN - 0729-2473
IS - 1
ER -