A history of the enlightenment without political economy? The case of Spain

Although often side-lined, political economy was one of the core languages of the European Enlightenment. In countries such as Spain, this discipline emerged in the 1740s as an essential language of the enlightened movement and a powerful mechanism for connecting with culturally and economically more developed countries. This article uses political economy as a common thread to consider some of the dilemmas currently facing the historiography of the Spanish Enlightenment: a single Enlightenment movement versus national context; radical versus moderate; centre versus peripheries; and an Enlightenment that was tied to the eighteenth century versus a longer-term movement.