Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 March 2015
The foundation of specialised economic journals was one of the main traits in the process of institutionalisation of political economy in 19th century Western Europe. Spain joined this trend at an early stage and in the 1850s and 1860s some specialised, albeit ephemeral, journals sponsored by the liberal school of economic thought – the Economist School – emerged. However, when these reviews ceased publication, Spanish economists lacked specialised periodicals as an outlet for their contributions. Miscellaneous literary reviews addressing a wider audience represented an alternative for the diffusion of economic papers into educated society, sharing space with many other scientific and literary disciplines. This paper analyses the presence of texts on political economy in four of the most important of these reviews in the period 1868-1914, when Spain lacked economic publications. In spite of not being specialised reviews, these publications played a central role in the process of diffusion and popularisation of political economy as a valuable field of knowledge, acting as a good substitute for specifically economic journals.
La creación de revistas especializadas en economía es uno de los rasgos importantes del proceso de institucionalización de la economía política en Europa en el siglo XIX. En España algunas revistas especializadas de breve vida vinculadas a la Escuela Economista aparecieron en las décadas de 1850-1860. Desde su cierre hasta la segunda década del siglo XX no existieron revistas específicamente económicas en España. Las publicaciones periódicas de carácter cultural y literario ofrecieron una alternativa para la difusión de artículos sobre cuestiones económicas, compartiendo espacio con otras disciplinas científicas, literarias y sociales. Este artículo analiza la presencia de textos económicos en las más importantes de estas revistas entre 1868 y 1914. La conclusión es que, a pesar de no ser un marco especializado, estas publicaciones jugaron un papel importante en el proceso de difusión y popularización de la economía como un valioso campo de conocimiento, constituyendo un buen sustituto para la ausencia de publicaciones especializadas.
Research for this article has benefitted from an Accueil Pro scholarship of the CMIRA Programme awarded by the government of the Région Rhône-Alpes. The author is grateful for the comments and criticism of two anonymous referees, as well as those of members of Laboratoire Triangle UMR 5206, Université Lumière Lyon 2. Financial support has also been provided by the research project ECO2012-39169-C03-03 (Ministry of Science, Spain), the research groups GRGDEP (XREPP) and SGR 1345 (Gov. of Catalonia) and the Centre d’Estudis Antoni de Capmany. The author also thanks the support of the Department of Economic History and Institutions of the University of Barcelona. Usual disclaimer applies.
Department of Economic History and Institutions, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Av. Diagonal 690, 08034 Barcelona, Spain. [email protected]