The Economy of Spain

Rogelio Casas Cadilla

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, January-February 1940]

In the fourteenth century, Spain was a free and prosperous country. The arts were cultivated, the profession of letters was protected and many industries such as textiles, steel of Toledo, silks, spices and carpets, were very flourishing. From all countries people came to buy and sell their products. Freedom of thought was respected in all its purity. No one was persecuted for his ideas Mohammedans had their mosques, Jews their synagogues and Catholics built their cathedrals. The most famous cathedrals of present-day Spain were constructed in that epoch.

The dignity of man and the sacred respect for individual rights had always been the glory and honor of the Spanish people. The citizenship which evolves from individual liberty was a quality of the Spaniard of those glorious times. Kings were treated familiarly and they were denied the right to reign if they lacked the support of moral law. This was the indominable race of the "Fuerc Juzgo"; the Court of Leon was convoked seventy years before the English established their parliament in London in the twelfth century, in the Court of Borja, the predominance of the community or peasantry was recognized and from the time of Alfonso the Third the right and duty of insurrection was proclaimed. In Aragon the mar called "Judge" became superior to the man called "King." The fearful "yes" or "no" of the Justice was upheld beyond the throne. It was a people who, at birth held Charlemagne in check, and at death repulsed Napoleon.

The intrigues of religion brought into power the daughter of King Henry of Trastramara and the famous battle of Toro gave the power to that lady who, meanwhile, married Fernando of Aragon. This marriage brought about what is known as "National Unity" the beginning of the downfall of the Spanish people. The attempt to dominate the whole Peninsula involved them in a struggle over the region in the hands of the Arabs. After sixteen years of bloody warfare the Catholic monarchs emerged victorious. At the end of the war, which was really one of extermination, Queen Isabella granted honors and title to all who had aided her economically and gave then dominion over the towns and lands. The common people who had been happy with their "ejidos" or public system of land ownership, were gradually impoverished. Under their public or municipal system of land ownership the aged were provided for; there was no need to impost taxes upon consumption and there were ample funds for public education. However, when the newly created nobles deprived them of their lands and properties, they lost everything.

Queen Isabella realized the great error she had made in paying for services rendered with lands and properties that were not hers, and she requested, in several royal decrees, that the lands and resources be returned to the cities, but she was never obeyed. At her death, in her famous testament, she again requested that the lands be returned to the people, but the newly rich, the famous Spanish nobility that she had founded, were immovable, they not only disobeyed Isabella's request, but they demanded more lands, saying that they had been paid very little for their services and they should be given the Province of Castile, in addition to Andalusia and the parts of Estremadura which had already been granted them. Cisneros, tutor of Charles the Fifth and a man of great talent and dignity, opposed the demands of the nobles but the fatuous Charles the Fifth gave himself over to them wholly, and, with the aid of his German invaders, destroyed the Communities of Castile and beheaded the traders who defended the sacred right of every man to the products of his labor.

Charles the Fifth was the worst king Spain ever had. He launched wars of conquest, established a dictatorship in Spain, created the commercial monopoly of the trade with the Indies and destroyed with cannon-balls the free cities of Italy where the Renaissance and The Modern age had their beginnings. He ended the free trade between cities and liberty of thought disappeared. Under his son, Phillip the Second, the economic situation grew worse from day to day. Hatred towards the liberty of land increased. During the reign of Charles the Second, who was known as "The Bewitched" and was the last ruler of the fatal house of Austria, prayers were screamed from the streets, so desperate had become the condition of the people. A nation of thirty-two millions of inhabitants has reduced to seven millions. The industries of silks, mosaics and knitted goods, etc., had disappeared. Roads [fell] to ruin because of lack of traffic. Communication became impossible. The best careers open to a man were to enter the church or become a highwayman. The Church swayed the kings to its will, and when the state had even million ducats of income, the Church had thirteen millions. It is impossible, in a few words, to explain how work was carried on in this epoch. A directed economy dictated by unions and guilds had reached unbelievable limits. For example, a sardine fisherman could not fish or any other kind of fish because the authorities would lot allow him to sell it later. The carpenter of oak could lot work in pine wood.

The people of Spain had entered into a hell of their own making. They are still in it, and to come out of it will cost much sacrifice and effort.

With liberty in Spain the country could be a cauldron of industry where now one finds only misery. The Americas would again turn to Spain by the mere attraction of its enlightenment and prosperity. Liberty is the magnet of progressive association. Liberty and the return of the land to its rightful owners, the people, would wing to Spain:

Production without tariffs, consumption without taxes, communication without blockage, industry without proletariat, riches without parasites, speech without gag, law without deceit, strength without armies, fraternity without elates consciousness, work for all, and harness for none.

It would be the ideal become the actual, and as there exists the guide swallow, there could exist the guide nation.

A Spain of equal citizens sharing equal rights in the land, would be a vigorous Spain. A democratic Spain would be a fortress Spain, a supreme, inexorable reality.

Liberty is immutable. It is always tranquil because it is indivisible, and invincible because it is contagious. He who attacks it, acquires it is absorbed by it. The army that is sent against it rebounds against the despot.

A Spain with liberty and without private property in land would be an irradiation of the true, a promise for all. Totalitarian Spain awaits the spirit of Henry George.