1 - Alberoni and the First Stirrings of Reform, 1713–1721

Summary

Although the Utrecht Treaties confirmed his Spanish inheritance, Philip V entered the postwar years of his reign a troubled monarch, ruling a divided and exhausted nation. The settlement denied him his rights to Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and Italy, and it recognized the British conquests of Gibraltar and Menorca. While his claim to the American empire was affirmed, Spain had to concede to the British demand for legal entry into colonial commerce through the slave trade monopoly, with damaging attendant codicils. And in February 1714, Philip lost his beloved Savoyard queen, Marie Louise, to tuberculosis. While he soon found solace in an Italian bride, Elizabeth Farnese, the king was plagued by chronic emotional instability, leading him to rely heavily on his wives.

Abad Julio Alberoni, the favorite of the new queen, emerged as the unlikely strong man of Madrid, although he held no public office and relied solely on his connections to the monarchs to maintain power. Neither contemporaries nor later historians have been kind to Alberoni, regarding him as a political neophyte who dazzled both young Italian queens with his mastery of their country’s cooking, a welcome alternative to the uninspiring Spanish fare served at court previously. Although in his portrait, shown in Figure 1.1, the cardinal strikes a very dignified pose, Alberoni was actually a diminutive and rotund man, perhaps too fond of his own cooking. One contemporary observer dismissively described Alberoni as a mere “pygmy whom fortune made a colossus.” His protégé, José Patiño, was probably closer to understanding the Italian cardinal when he remarked that Alberoni “turned impossibilities into mere difficulties.” Alberoni recognized that that the keys to reviving Spain and restoring it to greatness were improving royal finances, rebuilding the navy, and reviving trade with the Indies. Although his economic policies resembled those of Colbert and his financial innovations drew some inspiration from Jean Orry, Alberoni was essentially a political pragmatist, not an intellectual. Despite the adversity confronting Spain, in the postwar years, the Italian would oversee a time of impressive innovation in the administration of Spain and the American empire, although accomplishments arrived piecemeal, unevenly, and often painfully.