Trade Politics and the Trade Political Relations of the Juntas y regimientos de Vizcaya in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries

本课题的研究定位于受文化史和社会学影响的新社会经济史。它从以行为者为中心的角度审视了早期现代贸易。更具体地说，它探讨了地方和区域精英在巩固伊比利亚复合君主制中发挥的作用，其政治文化经常被描述为远离甚至反对经济问题。工作假设是，西班牙北部精英的崛起，尤其是在世纪，当西班牙遭受严重衰退时，只有考虑到他们将政治和贸易联系起来并弥合距离的能力，才能理解。正在调查的是谁进行了贸易，谁与谁进行了贸易政治，如何进行，为什么进行，以及在何种权力结构内进行。该项目与该领域其他研究项目的不同之处在于，它分析了商业和政治网络内的代理人和贸易惯例，并以家庭和客户关系为背景。创新的潜力在于所选择的方法：以区域行政机构为起点，它探讨了该组织在其他情况下捍卫贸易政治问题的可能性和能力，如布尔戈斯领事馆，朱普什科亚委员会，外国政府或西班牙王室。此外，在比斯开委员会内部和与之相关的范围广泛的机构，包括家庭、商业代理人和宗教团体，都得到了研究，以便重建跨领土空间的沟通，更重要的是，超越中心-边缘的鸿沟。因此，可以在地方、区域和超区域各级审查商人网络。从政治角度来看，西班牙北部当时被认为是外围国家的一部分，但也包含了在欧洲和海外有利益的重要贸易中心。该项目侧重于行动者及其目标，为迄今为止研究较少的现代早期商业和政治精英的整合提供了新的见解。同时，它也将为经济、行政和文化历史研究做出宝贵贡献。

The research project positions itself in the new social and economic history as influenced by cultural history and sociology. It examines early modern trade from an actor-centred perspective. More specifically, it explores the role local and regional elites played in the consolidation of the Iberian composite monarchy, the political culture of which has frequently been described as removed from or even opposed to economic concerns. The working hypothesis is that the rise of the north Spanish elites, moreover in the seventeenth century, when Spain was suffering a deep recession, can only be understood if one takes their ability to link politics and trade and bridge distance into account. What is being investigated is who traded and who made trade politics with whom, how, why, and within which structures of power. The project distinguishes itself from other research projects in the field in that it analyses the agents and practices of trade within mercantile and political networks and against the background of family and client relationships. The innovative potential lies in the chosen approach: Taking a regional administrative body as its starting point, it enquires into the possibilities and capacity of this organisation to defend trade political issues against other instances such as the Consulado de Burgos, the Juntas y regimientos de Guipuzkoa, foreign governments or the Spanish Crown. Furthermore, within - and in relation to - the Juntas y regimientos de Vizcaya, a wide range of institutions, including family, commercial agents and religious confraternities are studied, in order to reconstruct communication across territorial space and, more importantly, beyond the centre-periphery divide. The networks of merchants can therefore be examined at the local, regional and supraregional level. This translocal approach does justice to the fact that, from a political perspective, the north of Spain was considered part of the periphery at the time, yet also contained important trading centres with interests in Europe and overseas. Focusing on actors and their objectives, the project provides new insights into the hitherto little researched integration of mercantile and political elites in the early modern period. At the same time, it will also make a valuable contribution to economic, administrative and cultural historical research.