This essays analyzes the historiography of Italy's modern economic growth. A distinction is made between those interpretations that emphasize the uniqueness of the Italian experience and those that include Italy in the general process that started in Britain and spread to the rest of Europe through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the article surveys the most recent attempts to establish the timing, the causes, and the obstacles to Italy's economic growth during the last century.

The essay has as a main aim to analize the decay of Sierra de Cameros transhumant cattle raising, exemplified on the case of Don Mariano Antonio Manso de Velasco. The costs of the livestock itself and the price of pasture in Extremadura were the main reasons for the crisis rather than other factors such as foreign trade could influence. Institutional factors derived from the new liberal regime of 1821, also contributed to this process.

The main object of this paper is to present as precise a measure as possible of the growth of prices in Europe between 1500 and 1700. First, I calculate a weighted index of prices for Castilla la Nueva which is consistent with other European regions. This allows me to incorporate in the study one of the areas on which the study of the price revolution has traditionally centered. Second, employing the tools of modern monetary theory, I attempt to offer an ínterpretation of the behavior of prices based on the quantity theory of money. This theory, in my opinion, continues to offer the best explanation of the long-run changes in the absolute level of prices.

An attempt is made to describe main developments of Aragonese agriculture, distinguishing two different periods separated by the agricultural depression which occurred at the end of the 19th century. The main part of the article is dedicated to the first third of the 20th century, with special attention to the importance that technological change had on labour and land productivity.

The reform of the craft guild system in Spain, encouraged by the enlightened reformism of the second half of the eighteenth century, reached one of its most radical moments with the abolition of the Guild of Silk Throwsters in 1793. In this essay we look into the effects and reactions that this measure unleashed inside the important silk sector in the city of Valencia. Spinning, whose last and most skilled stage was throwing, had become a bottle-neck which put in jeopardy the future of an economic activity of vital importance for the urban population and economy. The abolition of this guild had the twofold effect of bringing to light the deep-seated troubles which were plaguing work organization in spinning, and disclosing the complex position of merchant capital in the silk trade. Valencian commercial bourgeoisie did not get involved in the much-needed reconversion of spinning. This is an essential factor to explain the failure of all the measures designed to provide the mills with cheap, good-quality yarn in large quantities. Furthermore, the absence of a restructuring of spinning is one of the reasons which accounts for the fact that the commercial bourgeoisie itself ended up maintaining a frontal opposition to this anti-guild decree issued by the Royal Court.

This article examines the relationship between capital market development and industrial structure during the early stages of industrialization, contrasting the experiences of Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. It argues that the two constraints placed on the formation of credit intermediaries in Latin America, namely, poorly defined property rights and government regulatory policies, produced greater concentration in the Mexican and Brazilian cotton textile industries than that which developed in the United Stares.

This article deals with the social mobility of private owners under the N(ew) E(conomic) P(olicy) in the Soviet Union during the 1920's. The question addressed is: Was it possible a rapid growth of capitalist stratra under the prevalent social and economic conditions? More specifically, the paper puts to the test the idea that market economy inevitably entails private owners differentiation and the formation of antagonistic social groups from the formerly homogeneous mass of petty commodity producers. A simulation model based on Markov chains was applied and its results show the directions and extent of social differentiation suggesting that had the NEP survive, private owners would not have disintegrated into opposed groups.

A strongly rentier mentality prevailed in the Spanish Catholic church during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries. Investments were applied to the acquisition of real estate properties to be rented for long periods of time, or used to grant credits, either private ones (censos consignativos) or public credits (juros). Church institutions finally became during the XVIIth century the main monopolizers of public debt bonds. The advantages granted by the Crown allowed the clergy a propitious position for the acquisition of new bonds by means of speculative operations that were nearly fraudulent. However, the bankruptcy of the Spanish monarchy eventually affected the Church itself, and it placed some institutions in a difficult financial position.

The few works which talk about the transition from sail to steam in the Spanish merchant marine, analyze it in terms of decadence and failure. But these impressions do not pair with an analysis of the Spanish fleet from an international perspective: it was among the pionneers, together with Great Britain, to complete the technological modernization of its ships. The objective of this paper is to describe and explain the process of technical diffusion, the changes in the institutional framework, and the business strategy of Spanish shipowners in this context.

The analysis of the cyclical fluctuatios in Peruvian financial development, and their relationship with the mainly agroexport economy, seeks to contribute to the discussion of the developmental role of Latin American export models. The major findings indicate that domestic financial institutions and elite groups contributed to a relative economic diversification and offered a degree of competition to foreign financial interests. Moreover, the decline of the agroexport model led to a hardly autonomous import-substitution model that resulted in increased financial concentration and policies adverse to financial development.

In this paper a sample which gives information on males from Buenos Aires in 1852 is used to estimate earnings equations. Some of these empirical results deserve special attention. No statistical correlation is found between salaries and literacy, but there is a significant correlation between capital owners and literacy. These results are interpreted using human capital theory. Then, they are compared with similar studies for other countries in the same period.

This article examines the relationship between capital market development and industrial structure during the early stages of industrialization, contrasting the experiences of Brazil, Mexico and the United States. It argues that the two constraints placed on the formation of credit intermediaries in Latin America, namely, poorly defined property rights and government regulatory policies, produced greater concentration in the Mexican and Brazilian cotton textile industries than that which developed in the United States.

This essay applies the causality test methodology to the series of income and money in Spain between 1904 and 1974. The results are not unambiguous, like in other experiences, but in the Spanish case ambiguity could be explained by the short term behavior of income.

The increase in the Spanish tariffs barriers during the interwar years started an action/retaliation process that jeopardized trade flows between Spain and Britain. This essay analyzes the role of an important sector of the Bristish press as a communication channel in the dispute over tariff policies between Spanish and British foreing trade lobbies. The period covered is marked by two events with a decisive impact on foreign trade: the General Strike of 1926 —specifically in the coal sector— and the Ottawa Conference and the Imperial Preference System of 1932. The analysis focuses on the trade problems of three specific sectors: coal, special steels, and agricultural produce.

This paper analyzes the Spanish industrial product during the period between the Spanish Civil War and the stabilization plan of 1959, whith special attention to the 1940's.

The essay carries out a revision of the Industrial Production Index, developed by Albert Carreras. The new industrial production index is made by breaking down the aggregate, in such a way that an index for each sector can be compiled, allowing for the changes in the productive structure of the Spanish industry of the period.

En sus cincuenta años de existencia (1941–1991) el INI ha ido acumulando una densa y variopinta biografia que, entre otras connotaciones, le configura como un protagonista destacado de la evolución de la ecoñomia española y, más específicamente, de su industria, a través de las diversas etapas que componen dicho período. Su carácter complejo y poliédrico le confiere, asimismo, una interesante característica, como es su capacidad reflectante de los intereses y preocupaciones de cualquier analista que a él se aproxima. Así ha sido hasta ahora y así parece seguir siendo en el excelente y completo trabajo publicado recientemente por P. Martín Acetín y F. Comín sobre la industria del INI con motivo del cincuentenario de esta, ya madura, institution.

La evidencia cuantitativa aportada en los últimos años en diferentes investigaciones ha permitido una interpretación sobre la trayectoria económica española para el período 1874–1936, en la cual se combina la constatación de tasas apreciables de crecimiento con el mantenimiento de un grado elevado de atraso. Y como señaló Lluch (1988), si el ámbito temporal se amplía hasta la actualidad, cualquier interpretación debería incluir la tardía recuperación de este último como un hecho clave a considerar.

No resulta, por tanto, sorprendente que las razones de la persistencia durante un largo período histórico de esta distancia entre los logros de la economía española y los conseguidos por los denominados países pautadores se haya erigido en uno de los temas centrales de debate de la Historia Económica en España. Entre los mútiples factores sugeridos para explicarla, el reducido grado de apertura y la política comercial practicada ha merecido una atención especial por los historiadores económicos.

Walras fue uno de los más grandes economistas de todos los tiempos. En consecuencia, la única actitud que cabe ante la traducción de sus Elementos de economía política pura es el alborozo, aunque haya mediado más de un siglo entre la primera edición del libro y la versión española.

La traducción puede parecer tardía, pero no lo es. Habrá que recordar la lenta historia de los Elementos, comenzando por el propio original, publicado originalmente en dos entregas, en 1874 y 1877. En cuanto a traducciones, no las hubo hasta mediados de este siglo, y es destacable que la primera fue la japonesa de 1953. Después vinieron otras, al inglés, italiano y ahora al español, todas basadas en la llamada edición definitiva de 1926. Aún no existe una versión alemana.

En el caso de la flamante versión española de los Elementos, existe un motivo de regocijo adicional: el ingreso de Julio Segura en el campo de la historia del pensamiento económico, siguiendo una vieja tradición de los buenos economistas que, aquí y en el extranjero, gustan de bucear en lo orígenes de su disciplina.

Pero somos muchos los buzos y las profundidades prístinas son en ocasiones oscuras y misteriosas. No es de extrañar, por lo tanto, que choquemos unos con otros, ni que exploremos el mismo sitio y salgamos después a la superficie con relatos muy diversos acerca de lo que creemos haber visto.