The Perpetually Fragmented Monarchy: Negotiation and Social Collaboration in Bourbon Spain

The unified Spanish state is traditionally considered a product of the Bourbon monarchy, which began in 1700.  This paper presents a reassessment of the Bourbon reforms in the early eighteenth century that reflects the surprisingly fragmentary nature of their administration in Iberia. Despite the harsh treatment of Barcelona following the Nueva Planta reforms, Bourbon rule depended upon local support. When Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, had the opportunity to create a new government following the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714), he chose to affirm local variation and privilege instead of creating a centralized government with a uniform legal and administrative system. Bourbon rule was highly irregular and created an ad-hoc legal and administrative network that was very responsive to local concerns. By responding to these concerns, the king overcame the local “indifference to nation” that could jeopardize the security of his rule by linking local interests with his through various forms of patronage.

This paper will discuss the implementation of the Nueva Planta reforms in the Crown of Aragon based on documents from the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Madrid. It will focus on examples of Bourbon suppression of corporate negotiation and the shift to alternative channels of particularist negotiation. The results of this change undercut the pretense of creating a more uniform government described in the initial decrees of the Nueva Planta. This form of rule reflected aspects of both the preceding Habsburg composite monarchy in Spain and of the Bourbon government in France, producing a uniquely flexible set of governing practices that challenge prevailing models of state development. As such, these findings suggest the need to re-evaluate the standard narratives of Spanish and European state development in the eighteenth century.