Publication: Mirando a Nueva España en otros espejos: cuatros ensayos sobre demografía y niveles de vida, siglos XVI-XIX
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2017-01-10
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Universidad Complutense de Madrid
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Abstract
Un primer paso que consideré indispensable al redactar esta memoria es explicitar la Weltanschauung que en mi caso personal antecede, recorre y envuelve mi producción historiográfica, primero por honestidad intelectual y segundo, porque siendo una colección de ensayos, resultaba pertinente mostrar sin ambages los hilos que los unen a todos. Ese hilo que cruza y hermana los cuatro ensayos que se presentan es ‘revisionista’ del tópico condenatorio del mundo hispánico de la primera Modernidad, lo cual no significa que se pretenda hacer aquí un reemplazo de la manida Leyenda Negra por una Leyenda Rosa. Lo fundamental, como dijese mejor que yo O’Gorman, “no es juzgar los sucesos pasados, sino conocerlos para entenderlos dentro de las circunstancias en que acontecieron”. Los dos textos iniciales –el primero escrito con Rafael Dobado– son una revisión crítica de las mal llamadas ‘fuentes secundarias’, que ponen en duda algunos de los loci más llevados y traídos de la historiografía sobre Hispanoamérica. Los dos ensayos finales, ricos en fuentes de archivo, son las primeras piedras de un proyecto más amplio para elaborar un índice comprensivo de precios y salarios para la ciudad de México entre 1759 y 1833. •Síntesis El primer ensayo lleva por título “Siete mitos acerca de la historia económica del Mundo hispánico”. El objetivo central del texto fue desnudar la escasez de evidencia documental de cada uno de estos mitos y mostrar que todos derivan de prejuicios e impresiones vagas, hijos más de la leyenda negra que de investigaciones minuciosas. Dobado y yo recurrimos a la comparación internacional para cuestionar el ‘excepcionalismo’ iberoamericano, que al menos en la época virreinal no parece haberlo sido tanto. En líneas generales, podemos decir que nuestros resultados señalan que el ‘atraso’ presente de Hispanoamérica se produjo eminentemente después de los años virreinales, y que una parte de él se explica además por factores geográficos y de dotación de recursos que en nada derivan de la dominación española...
A first step that I considered essential in drafting this dissertation is to explain the Weltanschauung that precedes, crosses and surrounds my historiographical production. This is needed, first to be intellectually honest, and second, because since it is a collection of essays, it is relevant to show unambiguously the threads that bind them all. The thread that intertwines the four essays is ‘revisionist’ of the commonplace that condemns the Hispanic world of early Modern times; this doesn’t mean that I’m attempting to replace the Black legend by a Rosé legend. I do think that the most important, as O'Gorman says, “is not to judge past events, but to study them in order to understand them under the circumstances in which they occurred”. The first two texts –the first one written with Rafael Dobado– are a critical revision of the socalled ‘secondary sources’, and they cast doubt on some of the most frequent commonplaces of the historiography dealing with Spanish America. The last two essays, rich in archival research, are the first cornerstones of a broader project that attempts to create a comprehensive price and wage index for Mexico City between 1759 and 1833. •Synthesis The first essay, entitled “Seven myths about the economic history of the Hispanic world” aimed at showing the shortage of documentary evidence that underlies the aforesaid myths and to proof that all of them derive from prejudices and vague impressions coming rather from the Black Legend than from thorough research. Dobado and I turned to international comparisons to question the Spanish American ‘exceptionalism’, that doesn’t seem to have existed during viceregal times. In broad lines we can say that our results indicate that the ‘backwardness’ present in contemporary Spanish America occurred predominantly after the viceregal era, and part of it stems from geography and resource endowment rather than from the Spanish domination...
A first step that I considered essential in drafting this dissertation is to explain the Weltanschauung that precedes, crosses and surrounds my historiographical production. This is needed, first to be intellectually honest, and second, because since it is a collection of essays, it is relevant to show unambiguously the threads that bind them all. The thread that intertwines the four essays is ‘revisionist’ of the commonplace that condemns the Hispanic world of early Modern times; this doesn’t mean that I’m attempting to replace the Black legend by a Rosé legend. I do think that the most important, as O'Gorman says, “is not to judge past events, but to study them in order to understand them under the circumstances in which they occurred”. The first two texts –the first one written with Rafael Dobado– are a critical revision of the socalled ‘secondary sources’, and they cast doubt on some of the most frequent commonplaces of the historiography dealing with Spanish America. The last two essays, rich in archival research, are the first cornerstones of a broader project that attempts to create a comprehensive price and wage index for Mexico City between 1759 and 1833. •Synthesis The first essay, entitled “Seven myths about the economic history of the Hispanic world” aimed at showing the shortage of documentary evidence that underlies the aforesaid myths and to proof that all of them derive from prejudices and vague impressions coming rather from the Black Legend than from thorough research. Dobado and I turned to international comparisons to question the Spanish American ‘exceptionalism’, that doesn’t seem to have existed during viceregal times. In broad lines we can say that our results indicate that the ‘backwardness’ present in contemporary Spanish America occurred predominantly after the viceregal era, and part of it stems from geography and resource endowment rather than from the Spanish domination...
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Tesis inédita de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Departamento de Historia de las Instituciones Económicas II, leída el 25-01-2016