Beschreibung
4to. [4], xxviii, 400p. Modern vellum (very slightly sprung); manuscript spine title in red and black ink; modern endpapers. Some very slight marginal water-staining. ***** Ward, an Irishman who had settled in Spain, was commissioned by Ferdinand VI to undertake a fact-finding mission in Europe in 1750-54, and upon his return composed the Proyecto económico, completed in 1762 but published posthumously in 1779 (1st and 2nd editions, with a 3rd edition in 1782 and a 4th in 1787). The Proyecto económico suggests ways of encouraging agriculture and commerce in Spain and her colonies. The proposals are quite specific and were probably controversial. In Part 1, for example, which is concerned mostly with Spain, Ward proposes the abolition of privileges granted to guilds, cities, provinces, the Mesta and the Cabaña Real (p.147). Part 2 is concerned with the Spanish possessions in the Americas. Ward shows how Spain might imitate British and French commercial practice in their colonies. He suggests that the Indians be given and taught to cultivate land, or taught to run other businesses, and that they be allowed to trade more freely among themselves, with colonists and with Spain. Ward also advocates the extension of trade between Spain s American possessions and Asia, and the establishment of a regular system of transportation and communication between Spain and the colonies. The final section of Part 2 (pp.320-400), Obra pía, medio de remediar la miseria de la gente pobre de España, originally published separately in 1750, is an influential work on the question of poverty and idleness that especially promoted the idea that the State could expect substantial economic benefits by applying the idle poor to useful tasks . - W.J. Callahan, Honor, commerce and industry in 18th-century Spain, p.60. Medina, BHA 494. Palau 373988. Kress Library Cat. B243. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 8/096
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