Uztáriz and His Sources: The Public Good Beyond the Reason of State

This book is devoted to Spanish economist Gerónimo de Uztáriz and his work on economics as a whole, especially the Theórica y práctica de comercio, y de marina—The Theory and Practice of Commerce and Maritime Affairs. This lengthy and eminent treatise was first published in Madrid, possibly between 1724 and 1725, and the years 2024 and 2025 therefore mark the first edition’s tercentenary.The Theórica was and is well known in the Spanish-speaking world as a whole, but this has not been the case outside it, despite the enormous international success it enjoyed in eighteenth-century Europe. While there is a wide range of literature about the book in Spanish, we still lack an interpretation of Uztáriz and the Theórica that is oriented to an international audience—as the work itself ultimately aimed to be—that discusses it in the context of its own time and presents it in all its multiple dimensions. This requires an interpretation that starts with the history of economic thought, but is based on dialogue between specialists in related disciplines (diplomatic history, history of politics and linguistics) and with a thorough knowledge of the “long” eighteenth century and Enlightenment culture, and that is what this collective volume aims to achieve.