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

该研究项目将自己定位于受文化史和社会学影响的新社会经济史中。它从以行动者为中心的角度考察了早期的现代贸易。更具体地说，它探讨了地方和地区精英在巩固伊比利亚复合君主制方面所发挥的作用，其政治文化经常被描述为与经济问题无关，甚至是反对的。有效的假设是，西班牙北部精英阶层的崛起，而且是在17世纪西班牙陷入严重衰退的时候，只有考虑到他们将政治和贸易联系起来的能力，以及沟通距离的能力，才能理解他们的崛起。正在调查的是谁与谁进行交易，谁与谁进行贸易政治，如何进行，为什么，以及在哪些权力结构内。该项目与该领域的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贸易代理人和做法，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：它以一个区域行政机构为起点，调查该组织针对布尔戈斯领事馆、吉普兹科阿军团、外国政府或西班牙王室等其他情况为贸易政治问题辩护的可能性和能力。此外，在维兹卡亚军团内部和与之相关的各种机构，包括家庭、商业代理人和宗教联谊会，都受到了研究，以便重建跨越领土空间的沟通，更重要的是，超越中心与边缘的鸿沟。因此，可以在地方、区域和超区域一级对商人网络进行审查。从政治角度看，西班牙北部当时被认为是外围地区的一部分，但也拥有在欧洲和海外拥有利益的重要贸易中心，这种跨地区做法恰好符合这一事实。该项目聚焦于参与者及其目标，提供了对现代早期商业精英和政治精英之间迄今鲜有研究的整合的新见解。同时，它也将为经济、行政和文化史研究做出宝贵的贡献。

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.