Provecho e interés. El pensamiento económico entre las narrativas picarescas y la Ilustración. Aproximación a una historia conceptual continuada desde el Siglo de Oro hasta la Ilustración

Abstract

The category of interest has formed part of the economic discourse since the 17th century and in this context adopts a variety of meanings, for instance the interest of credits or the individual advantages of a business or a contract. Conceptual history, however, points out that this concept has a strategic function within the introduction of economic sciences in the Enlightenment: the sublimation of passions which turns them into economic interests and which helps to improve the mutual treatment of human beings in society. The following article provides a short overview showing the evolution of the category of interest from the picaresque literature to the treaties and articles published in the context of the first liberalism in Spain that is to say the second half of the 18th century.