Carlos Álvarez Nogal- PhD
- Professor at University Carlos III de Madrid
Carlos Álvarez Nogal
- PhD
- Professor at University Carlos III de Madrid
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56
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
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Publications
Publications (56)
The economic decline of Early Modern Spain offers an opportunity to explore how it affected perceptions of welfare and inequality. We provide an answer based on the Bull of the Crusade, an inexpensive alms collected by the Hispanic Monarchy and massively purchased by a highly religious population that believed in its spiritual benefits. The purchas...
El desarrollo de una política mediterránea de naturaleza imperial y la prohibición de la exportación de moneda fuera de los dominios castellanos han constituido dos de los principales ejes de la interpretación historiográfica sobre el desempeño de la Monarquía Hispánica durante la Época Moderna. Por un lado, las Cortes clamaron contra la salida de...
Este trabajo cuantifica los ingresos de la Monarquía en Castilla y América en el reinado de Felipe II. Después de estudiar los resultados que tuvo el incremento de la presión fiscal, analiza los esfuerzos realizados para agilizar su uso resolviendo los problemas que planteaba la distancia geográfica impuesta por el Atlántico. Los banqueros del rey...
Research in economic history has challenged a strict Malthusian depiction of preindustrial European economies, highlighting ‘efflorescences’, ‘Smithian’ and ‘growth recurring’ episodes. Do these defining concepts apply to preindustrial Spain? In this paper, we carry out new yearly estimates of output and population for over half-a millennium. We fi...
The full analysis of the text of a contract, asiento, between Philip II of Spain and a Genoese merchant–banker details how in this pre-modern composite state, merchant–bankers acted as agents of the Crown who gathered many scattered sources of income to the Crown and transformed them into large and regular cash flows, mesadas, for the army. Because...
The Black Death was the most devastating demographic shock in recorded human history. However, the effects in the European population were highly asymmetrical as were its economic consequences. This paper surveys the short and long run economic effects of the plague in Spain in European perspective. While the demographic impact in Spain was moderat...
In the fragmented geographical, fiscal, and financial state inherited by Philip II of Spain, while the public debt reached an unprecedented level (50–60 per cent of GDP), the critical refinancing of unfunded asientos into funded juros was operated by merchant-bankers who signed the asientos. This process is illustrated, using abundant archival docu...
Deposit banks, also called “public banks” and established in the main cities of Castile during the sixteenth century, had close ties with Genoese bankers. Thanks to these local banks many foreign and national financiers gathered the funds they provided to the Crown. The decree of 1575 had worse effects on these public banks and their clients than o...
Los Fugger tuvieron dos compañías de negocios trabajando al mismo tiempo en Castilla durante el reinado de Felipe IV. Una compañía nueva se constituyó en 1624 para controlar la Cruzada y firmar contratos de crédito con la Monaquía. Se la conocía en la Corte como los «Fugger jóvenes» y fue capaz de proveer a la Corona con más de 14 millones de ducad...
This paper explores the role of agriculture in Spain's contribution to the little divergence in Europe. On the basis of tithes, long-run trends in agricultural output are drawn. After a long period of relative stability, output suffered a severe contraction during 1570–1620, followed by stagnation to 1650, and steady expansion thereafter. Output pe...
In this response, we demonstrate that Mauricio Drelichman and Hans-Joachim Voth, in their 2015 Economic History Review note ‘Duplication without constraints: Álvarez-Nogal and Chamley's analysis of debt policy under Philip II’, provide a misconceived and inaccurate account of our argument about the finances of Philip II in ‘Debt policy under constr...
Numerous archival documents show how the suspension of payments by Philip II, in September 1575, on the contracts with Genoese bankers (
asientos
) induced a freeze of the domestic credit market in Castile through the bankers’ intermediation for
asientos
and the credit interconnections. Commercial fairs stopped, banks failed and trade suffered whil...
This paper explores the role of agriculture in Spain’s contribution to the little divergence in Europe. On the basis of tithes, long-run trends in agricultural output are drawn. After a long period of relative stability, output suffered a severe contraction during 1570-1590, followed by milder deterioration to 1650. Output per head moved from a rel...
Spanish history shows how risky it might be to judge the quality of the institutions according to the economic results of a country at any given moment. Independent of the type of government or the way of administrating power, it was essential for countries to make an effort to keep their economy open and competitive. Spain boasted an innovative fi...
The large public debt was created in 16th century Castile. A new view of its fiscal system is presented. The main part of the debt was in perpetual redeemable annuities and its credibility was enhanced by decentralized funding through taxes administered by cities that represented the Realm in the Cortes. Accumulation of short-term debt would be ref...
Two distinctive regimes are distinguished in Spain over half-a-millennium. A first one (1270s-1590s) corresponds to a high land-labour ratio frontier economy, pastoral, trade-oriented, and led by towns. Wages and food consumption were relatively high. Sustained per capita growth occurred from the Reconquest's end (1264) to the Black Death (1340s) a...
Many Genoese banking companies worked in Castile between 1600 and 1640. All of them had common features that deserve to be studied. The organization of these companies and their strategies for developing their commercial and financial businesses were both essential elements in their success. Although many contemporaries accused the Genoese bankers...
El objetivo de este trabajo no es abordar el impacto que tuvieron los juros en la evolución económica de Castilla, ni siquiera en las finanzas de la Monarquía, sino analizar el funcionamiento de este instrumento crediticio y su demanda desde una perspectiva a largo plazo: quiénes invirtieron en juros y por qué lo hicieron
This research studies the influence of the costs of acquiring and transmitting information in the organization of a 17th century trading and financial company. The study is based on the entrepreneurial activities of a Genoese banker, Bartolomé Spinola, who, very early on, settled in Madrid and served the Spanish Crown as Factor General del Rey. The...
During the 16 th and 17 th Centuries the Genoese Bankers offered many financial services all around Europe at such high levels that no other competitor could be compared with them. Their success should be imputed to the organization of their commercial and holding companies. The financial services which were produced by these Genoese companies need...
This paper investigates when did retardation begin in Spain and examines the evidence on economic performance over three centuries. In contrast to earlier estimates that focus almost exclusively on Castilian agriculture we look at trends in urbanization as a measure of economic activity outside agriculture and construct new measures of agricultural...
This article attempts to quantify the decline of Spain over the period 1500 1850. In contrast to earlier estimates that focus almost exclusively on Castilian agriculture, we look at trends in urbanisation and construct new measures of agricultural and aggregate output at both regional and national levels. A distinctive long-run behaviour is found a...
A widespread consensus exists about the poor performance of early modern Spain and numerous explanatory hypotheses have been put forward. However, lack of quantification makes the macroeconomic performance of Spain during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries largely an unknown. Was there decline or stagnation? Was it absolute or relative to ot...
RESUMEN
Las monedas de plata eran un excelente instrumento de pago en la España del siglo XVII y también en el resto de Europa, pero, dado su elevado peso y valor, su uso y transporte tenía riesgos y costes. ¿Se puede hacer una estimación de los mismos? Hasta ahora sabemos lo que la Corona pagaba a los banqueros por realizar este servicio, pero ¿cu...
The traditional literature about the Castilian agriculture has interpreted the sale of "baldíos" as one of the main causes of the Castile's decline at the end of the sixteenth century. This paper explains how Castile entered in decadence not because "baldíos" were sold, but because they existed from the fifteenth century onward. Instead of seeing e...
Many Genoese banking companies worked in Castile between 1600 and 1640. All of them had common features that deserve to be studied. The organization of these companies and their strategies for developing their commercial and financial businesses were both essential elements in their success. Although many contemporaries accused the Genoese bankers...
Many Genoese banking companies worked in Castile between 1600 and 1640. All of them had common features that deserve to he studied. The organization of these companies and their strategies for developing their commercial and financial businesses were both essential elements in their success. Although many contemporaries accused the Genoese bankers...
Este trabajo muestra la estrategia de la Corona y de los agentes financieros en la negociación del crédito en un marco de gran incertidumbre sobre el valor real de los medios de pago. Dicha incertidumbre estuvo causada por la existencia de una moneda de cobre continuamente alterada por la Monarquía. A la inestabilidad derivada de la moneda fiduciar...
The Spanish Monarchy borrowed foreign credit during more than 150 years despite repudiating its agreements from time to time.According to the extant literature on sovereign debt, lenders should not have lent any money to the Spanish Monarchy, especially because they were not organized as a cartel. Sovereign debt theory asserts that the principal co...
The traditional literature about the Castilian agriculture has interpreted the sale of baldíos as one of the main causes of the decline of Castile during the seventeenth century. The sale obligated the peasant to buy the land if he wanted to continue working on it. Many of these lands were marginal and poor soils, so the growth of production cost w...
RESUMEN
Este trabajo pretende analizar los resultados de la regulación del tipo de cambio vellón-plata sobre la contratación del crédito a corto plazo de la Real Hacienda, comparando los tipos máximos oficiales con los que fueron fijados en los contratos con los banqueros en la primera mitad del siglo XVII. Para ello emplearemos los conceptos que n...
RESUMEN
En este artículo se estudia la figura del Factor General del rey dentro de la organización y funcionamiento de la Real Hacienda castellana entre 1627 y 1644, coincidiendo con el gobierno reformista del Conde-duque de Olivares. Durante esos años, el desempeño de este cargo recayó en Bartolomé Spinola, uno de los más importantes hombres de ne...
RESUMEN
A la hora de estudiar la cuantificación de las remesas americanas se suele distinguir entre caudales públicos y privados, pero de esta ambigua clasificación sólo se obtienen resultados inexactos, especialmente en el siglo XVII. Este trabajo estudia los metales preciosos llegados para la Real Hacienda entre 1621 y 1675, y pretende mostrar qu...
Estas páginas tienen como objetivo aportar algunas ideas relacionadas con los beneficios legales e ilegales obtenidos por los maestres de plata, así como identificar a los más importantes del reinado de Felipe IV, en función del volumen de metales preciosos que trajeron registrados legalmente. Se trata en el fondo de aportar algunos datos de utilid...
The Spanish Crown not only made short term loans from major international bankers, it also borrowed by issuing long term bonds called "juros", which were bought by Spanish and foreing investors. The issue of such public debt instruments was particularly intense in the 16th and 17th centuries in order to finance the Spanish Crown's ambitious foreign...
El objetivo de este trabajo es poner de manifiesto, a través del papel que tuvieron como acreedores de la Casa de la Contratación, quiénes fueron los principales hombres de negocios del Rey durante el reinado de Felipe IV, aportando el mayor número posible de referencias sobre su vida y sus negocios privados, que permitan entender mejor su evolució...
La Casa de la Contratación fue creada por la Monarquía española en 1503 para controlar de forma exclusiva todas las actividades económicas entre España y América. ¿Fue una institución que promovió la actividad económica con los nuevos territorios americanos o, por el contrario, lo impidió desanimando a los inversores privados? Este trabajo pone de...
It is well known that the Spanish Monarchy found out some problems in its monetary system. So far, almost all the studies have been concentrated in the billon problem and inflation. However, small and large silver coins had also problems to circulate together in Castile. Without small change, among other consequences, it was more difficult to carry...
