Military Supply without the Military? Supplying the Spanish Army in the 18th Century

Abstract

Great progress has been made over the last decade in knowledge of the various systems of military supply used by the different European states in the 18th century. There is thus a clear institutional differentiation between the model of relations with the private market established by the British parliamentary monarchy or the Dutch republic and the model characteristic of absolute monarchies, such as those in France or Spain. This article undertakes an initial assessment of the Spanish trend of asiento general as the preferred option for procurement, clearly connected to the French case. Without ruling out the influence of political organisation, we aim to refine the institutional approach, endeavouring to locate other factors of an economic, administrative or social nature which likewise appear to be determinants of the model of military supply. These arguments are related to the encouragement of national industry and the administrative modernisation of the state, which can end up leading to the desire to separate the military organisation from this type of business.