Politics and economics in Tomás Anzano's ‘Análisis del comercio del trigo’ (1975)

Abstract

This paper analyses the political and economic significance of T. Anzano’s Análisis del comercio del trigo (1795), published as part of the Spanish edition of J.C. Hebert’s Ensayo sobre la policía general de los granos, which Anzano himself translated. Hebert's essay is considered to be one of the most influential contributions to the moderate defence of free trade within the context of the European Enlightenment. As he had done in a previous publication of 1768, Anzano proposed certain modifications to the liberalization of the commerce of grains as set out in Pragmática (1765). However, while his earlier treatise had been formulated in opposition to an ideal of power represented by Campomanes, his Análisis del comercio was designed to support the interventionist tendency of the Concejo de Castilla, and therefore implied a critique of the liberal approach defended by Jovellanos’ Informe de Ley Agraria (1795). This critique was informed by an inclination to defend the interests of consumers and agrarian workers, and was influenced by the English political model and a certain degree of republican humanism. Anzano’s economic doctrines enshrined an approach that emphasized regulation and administration, and was marked by anti-physiocrat and cameralist influences.