Paolo Balsamo, Gaspar De Jovellanos and the Agrarian Whiggism in the Mediterranean

Abstract

This article presents the model of reformed agriculture and the economic program elaborated by Paolo Balsamo and Gaspar de Jovellanos in two distinct but, for several aspects, similar national contexts. The study of these two authors allows us to highlight the similarities and convergence of their economic and political proposals. Uniformities which can be explained with the common adoption of Smithianism and British agrarianism as reference paradigm. This work aims to show that this theoretical choice, made by two economists who are far from and not connected to each other, is a consequence of the spread of British Whiggism in the Mediterranean. Jovellanos’ Informe de Ley Agraria and Balsamo’s Agricoltura can be seen as two attempts at steering Spain and Sicily towards a model of society in the Whig matrix, whose economy has to be founded on a managed capitalistic agriculture and a free competitive market.