1640 Revisited, or, How the Party of Commercial Expansion Lost to the Party of Political Conservation in Spain's Atlantic Empire, 1620 – 1650

Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert

Under the reformist government of the Count-Duke of Olivares (1621-1643), the decline of Spain provided a unique opening for the reconfiguration of its commercial system. Among the most prominent allies of the Count-Duke were the merchants and bankers of the Portuguese trading community. The paper concentrates its attentions on the members of this group, examining how their social experience in the world of overseas trade was translated into public arguments over the place of commerce in the Spanish Empire. Attention is also paid to the intellectual frameworks undergirding both the Portuguese writings and those of their critics.

[WP # 99001]