Free trade in the first person: the Peña Villarejo family’s little-known role promoting this economic and political movement in nineteenth-century Spain

Abstract

This article seeks to highlight the part played by the Peña Villarejo family in the development of the free trade movement in nineteenth-century Spain, a role which has so far been overlooked by historians, as have the biographical trajectories of individual family members. Originally from La Rioja, though based in Madrid, they achieved great prosperity in their commercial activities and devoted part of their lives to defending free trade, actively participating in the main organizations that supported this policy —in which they held management positions— and championing initiatives which would ensure that their principles prevailed over the protectionism that dominated the century.