Administración o asiento. La política estatal de suministros militares en la monarquía española del siglo XVIII

Abstract

One of the commonest handles on state construction in historical studies is to look at how the state solved its warfare resource mobilization needs: by direct administration or by asiento (state contract) Thompson, for example, has related the decline of the Hapsburg state to the switch from a direct-administration to asientos system, just as the strength of the Bourbon state has been attributed to a greater role of direct administration over asientos. our aim in this article is to weigh this approach against the historical evidence. on the basis of studies of the eighteenth century we have concluded that the Bourbon state turned to asientos much more often than past historical research might have suggested. The supply cases analysed show that there was never a strict linear development in any direction, rather a continual fluctuation from one to the other. The reasons for this behaviour is because the limits betweenasientosand administration were much more blurred than has hitherto been thought and, above all, because it did not balk the strength of the state or the exercising of its authority.