Control y negocio de la deuda real en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII: la Tesorería Mayor

Abstract

What is the meaning of the debt control in 18th century Spain? The paper studies the politics of government from Spanish War of Succession to the bankruptcy of 1739. The Tesorería Mayor (General Treasury) created in 1703 and reorganized since the Nueva Planta is the main instrument of that control. The aim of this institution is not only to improve the accounting and to centralize the monney. It aims for creating a short terms debt, to gauge its amount and to organize the sharing of the benefits between the monarchy and the businessmen. In fact, Spanish governments don’t want to institute a formal public debt nor a royal bank. The politics defined in the first decades of the century are tested out when the war spending increases, in the 1730ies. The new reforms of the Spanish government of Finances, in these years, doesn’t concern only the making of political decisions and the distribution ofcontributions. It’s too a reorientation of the debt politics.