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在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审视了早期现代贸易。更具体地说，它探讨了当地和地区精英在巩固伊比利亚复合君主制中所起的作用，这种君主制的政治文化经常被描述为与经济问题相分离，甚至是对立的。一个可行的假设是，西班牙北部精英阶层的崛起，而且是在西班牙遭受严重衰退的17世纪，只有考虑到他们将政治与贸易联系起来、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、如何、为什么以及在哪些权力结构中进行了贸易政治。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以及家庭和客户关系背景下的贸易代理人和做法。创新潜力在于所选择的方法：以一个区域行政机构为起点，研究该组织捍卫贸易政治问题的可能性和能力，以对抗其他情况，如布尔戈斯领事馆、军政府、外国政府或西班牙王室。此外，在比斯开军团内部和与之相关的地方，研究了各种各样的机构，包括家庭、商业代理人和宗教兄弟会，以便重建跨越领土空间的交流，更重要的是，超越中心和外围的界限。因此，可以在地方、区域和超区域一级审查商人网络。从政治角度来看，这种跨地区的方法公正地反映了这样一个事实：西班牙北部当时被视为外围地区的一部分，但也包含了在欧洲和海外都有利益的重要贸易中心。该项目专注于行动者及其目标，为迄今为止很少研究的近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.