Liberty in Absolutist Spain: The Habsburg Sale of Towns, 1516-1700. 1, 108th Series, 1990
Product Description
Throughout early modern Europe, one of the most extraordinary royal fund-raising schemes was the seizure and sale of church property to finance foreign wars. The monarchs of Habsburg Spain extended these seizures to municipal property and used the revenue to maintain their empire. They sold charters of autonomy to hundreds of villages, thus converting them into towns, and sold towns to private buyers, thus increasing the number of seigniorial lords. In Hapsburg Spain, therefore, absolutism did not mean centralization. Rather, the kings invoked their absolute power to decentralize authority and allow their subjects a surprising degree of autonomy.
Liberty in Absolutist Spain: The Habsburg Sale of Towns, 1516-1700. 1, 108th Series, 1990
Helen Nader’s 1990 book, Liberty in Absolutist Spain: The Habsburg Sale of Towns, 1516-1700, we are introduced to many case studies that are lifelike and full of a lot of detail. Nader introduces the term perpetual decentralization as a way of describing the political infactions in Habsburg Spain. During times of desperate need such as funding a war, the authorities needed to make timely tax pickups. This information is new in the field of Habsburg studies. Habsburg studies had not been a hot topic since the nineteenth century but Nader has brought it to the forefront.
Nader illustrates who the Castilian villages obtained charters which gave them municipal status and their struggle to maintain their independence. This struggle is mirrored by another society that existed during their same period, and that is the America’s. Considering the two societies came into contact via Columbus, it is not mentioned. Nader does not discuss the ‘outer world’ but rather focuses on Castile under the Habsburgs. She does however, relate the Habsburg rule to that of all of Spain. She compares the towns that maintained their autonomy to those that lost theirs to the government.
This book offers a new perspective of absolutism that William Beik does not cover. Nader’s analysis is a breath of fresh air for anyone that has had to read article after article about absolutism, she brings the idea that absolutism is not an entirely bad thing rather it is benefiticial to both the government and society.
Rating: 5 / 5