Pedro Rodriguez de Campomanes

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Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes and Pérez-Sorriba, first count of Campomanes (Santa Eulalia de Sorriba, Tineo, Asturias, July 1 1723-Madrid, February 3, 1802) was a Spanish politician, lawyer and economist. He was appointed Minister of Finance in 1760 in the first reformist government of the reign of Carlos III led by the Prime Minister Count of Floridablanca and stripped of his posts in 1789 due to the fear that King Carlos IV aroused in the French Revolution.

Biography

He was the second of three well-matched brothers; the first was Josefa (born in 1721) and the last Francisco (born in 1724); His sister always lived in Cangas de Tineo, where she married, and his brothers renounced their small inheritances in her favor out of love to help her. Pedro also contributed generously to cover the expenses of his two nephews Domingo and Francisco in the prestigious Colegio Mayor of San Clemente of the Spanish of Bologna; both reached high positions in the State and in the Church, respectively.

The parents of these three siblings were Pedro Rodríguez Campomanes (from Sumión de Arriba, born in 1688) and María Pérez Fernández (from Sorriba, born around 1690). Both parents were noblemen of class, although the Campomanes lineage was older than that of the mother. When her father died (1724), her mother entrusted her maintenance and education to an uncle of hers, Pedro Pérez de Sorriba, canon of the collegiate church of Santillana del Mar; later his brother Francisco would join him. He did his first studies in Santianes (Santianes de Tuña or Tuna), near Sorriba, and he only went to Santillana with his uncle when he was about seven years old; there he was educated demonstrating a precocious intelligence in the study of classical languages (at the age of ten he was translating fragments of Ovid); Indeed, he had a good teacher of Latin, Manuel Gozón. Pedro and Francisco received the first tonsure on September 26, 1736 at the ages of 12 and 13, perhaps to be able to access some ecclesiastical benefit; but only Francisco followed the ecclesiastical career. Advised by Gozón, Pedro voluntarily and free of charge taught Latin in Cangas de Tineo, but already at the age of thirteen he was reading sponte sua the Instituta of Justiniano. He then began his law degree in Oviedo, which he continued and concluded in Seville, always as a manteista, although it is only assumed: there is no documentary evidence that he studied in those places between 1739 and 1745, although his panegyrists Traggia and Doménech wrote that he graduated in utroque iure in Seville and moved to Madrid; Campomanes himself wrote that he was already in Madrid in 1741, at the age of 18, doing four years as an intern simultaneously in the offices of Juan José Ortiz de Amaya and Miquel Cirer y Cerdá; he even practiced in court for a year as a member of the Tomás Azpuru y Jiménez Practice Board. Ortiz de Amaya was related to the abbot of the collegiate church of Santillana del Mar, Gaspar de Amaya, so it must be assumed that he would have been recommended as a young neophyte by his uncle, the canon Pedro Pérez de Sorriba. He finally obtained the title or titles Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Canons and received the Bachelor's degree on December 4, 1745 at the age of 22 and 5 months. He requested a special habilitation for one semester due to the slowness of the procedures before being admitted to the Madrid Bar Association and opened a law firm; he demonstrated such prodigious competence as a lawyer, that the nobles called upon his services continually. He was also a voracious reader; and he was one of the few who read and understood Baruch Spinoza, including David Hume's A Treatise on Human Nature among his books.

Eager for knowledge, especially in historical, economic and philological matters, he devoted himself intensely to studying ancient and modern languages and, in addition, Arabic. He frequented the convent gathering of the illustrious Benedictine polygraph Father Fray Martín Sarmiento, who instilled in him an unlimited love for the patriotic ideals of regeneration of his brother of the order, Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, who would later be his most enthusiastic apologist, biographer and editor. When Carlos III came to the throne, he took notice of him and was appointed a member of the Treasury and Castile councils and devoted his entire life to politics, as can be proven by the numerous official positions he held and the many affairs for which he was required. He dedicated himself to reforms in three sectors: legal, economic and political, under the sign of the Enlightenment. In the political field, he has been classified as a defender of enlightened despotism; in the economic sphere, he opposed the monopoly of the trade unions and the Mesta, the last remains of the antiquated economic system of the estates; likewise he promoted trade and industry and favored the expulsion of the Jesuits and the confiscation of their property. Furthermore, he still had time to marry early with the Extremaduran noblewoman from Alburquerque Doña Manuela de las Amarillas Sotomayor y Amaya, from whom he had three children who survived childhood: Sabino Rodríguez de Campomanes Amarilla (1764-1825) II Count of Campomanes, Bibiana and Manuela Susana.

Posthumous portrait (1879) by Eduardo Balaca.

Dating from 1747 is his splendid work History of the Order and Knighthood of the Templars, one of the most important and complete documents on the Order of the Temple, the process that followed it and the death in the bonfire of its most outstanding leaders, although also, as an economist, he carefully discusses the destination of his assets; Here it seemed to anticipate the regalism of a policy that would end twenty years later in the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767) as a consequence or pretext of the Esquilache riot (1766). Along the same lines is his Sketch of Spanish economic policy, outlined on the present state of his interests (1750), which he signed with the pseudonym Rodrigo Perianes Campo. All these works earned him the inclusion of him in the Royal Academy of History in 1748. And precisely in that year he began his Arabic studies with the Maronite father, librarian of Fernando VI, Miguel Casiri (1710-1791). With his help, he translated two chapters (XVII and XIX) of an agronomic treatise by Ibn al-Abwan or Abu Zacaria (1751). He also studied Greek with the Hellenist José Carbonell Fougasse (1707-1801), who was also a fellow student of Casiri's. He later investigated, between 1751 and 1754, the councils held in Spain and published his study in the second volume of the Memories of the Academy; in 1753 he was appointed Censor of the Royal Academy of History and in 1755 he obtained the position of General Director of Posts and Posts.

Charles III appointed him Minister of Finance in 1760; It was then that he read Bernardo Ward's Economic Project... , whose ideas he assumed and whose publication he promoted. In 1762 he was appointed prosecutor of the Council of Castile, which he later presided over. In 1763 he became a member of the Royal Spanish Academy and in 1764 he obtained the presidency of the Royal Academy of History, a position he held until 1791 and would resume in his last days. Among his achievements as Minister of Finance are having established subsidies for the most disadvantaged agricultural areas, managing to free trade and agriculture from taxes that prevented its growth and the decree of free circulation of cereals.

In 1765, the year in which he would publish his important Treatise on amortization royalty, soon translated into other European languages, Campomanes was appointed president of the Council of the Mesta. He took advantage of that same year to support the Company of Printers and Booksellers, born in 1763, granting them the benefit of the exclusive edition of the Complete Works of Benito Jerónimo Feijoo, who had just passed away and until then had been circulating loosely., and he himself was in charge of writing a "Biographical News" for the work, which consisted of fourteen volumes in octavo; He thus intended to spread the new reformist thought throughout Spain.

After supporting the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767), who maintained a monopoly on the training of the nobles and led the opposition to the royalist reforms, he joined Pablo de Olavide and the Count of Aranda himself to organize the repopulation or colonization of Sierra Morena and wrote his Instruction for the new populations of Sierra Morena and jurisdiction of its settlers, where he advocated agrarian reforms that in his opinion should be applied to all Spanish agriculture: distribution of land among small owners, make livestock and agriculture compatible and impose a long-term lease law. In 1771, he proposed as a prosecutor a profound reform of the curriculum at the University of Salamanca. He converted two chairs of philosophy into others of mathematics and physics, and veiledly pointed out that the famous Diego Torres Villarroel, a mathematics professor, had considered his duties fulfilled with the mere publication of almanacs and forecasts. At the Faculty of Medicine he recommended the creation of an anatomical amphitheater, provided with instruments, books and models; a botanical garden and a simple museum. He also proposed that anatomy students study the Complete Anatomy by Martín Martínez, in addition to Lorenz Heister's compendium.

With this same reformist intention, he published in 1774 his Discourse on the promotion of popular industry, which was widely disseminated throughout Spain in municipal councils and among Covachuelistas; and in 1775 his Discurso sobre la educación popular de las artisans y su fomento, equally widespread, the same year in which he was appointed director of the Sociedad Económica Matritense. As a supplement to this work, they published in that same year four appendices, any of them considerably longer than the Original Discourse. The first reflects on the causes of the decline of trades and manufactures in Spain during the last century. In the second, the necessary steps are offered to improve or restore the old manufactures and a curious collection of royal decrees is provided with the purpose of defending the arts and crafts and the introduction of foreign raw materials. The third deals with the corporate laws of the artisans in contrast with the result of Spanish legislation and the municipal ordinances of the cities. The fourth contains eight essays by the 17th century arbitrator Francisco Martínez de Mata on national trade, with some observations adapted to the circumstances of the time.

Monument to Campomanes, by Amado González Hevia "Favila", in Oviedo.

In that same year of 1775, the Royal Economic Society of Madrid was established on his initiative, whose statute became the model for the others that it promoted throughout Spain and the Colonies. These Economic Societies of Friends of the Country, founded in the spirit of the Enlightenment, sought to develop and spread industry, commerce, agriculture, science, and culture to all citizens. Moreover, he published the influential Economic Project in which several measures are proposed, aimed at promoting the interests of Spain, with the necessary means and funds for its planning (1779) by Bernardo Ward, supreme inspiration for Spanish economists even since the manuscript was published in 1761.

Campomanes held a gathering or salon in his house every afternoon, which was frequented by the painter Antonio Rafael Mengs, the architect Ventura Rodríguez, the sculptor Felipe de Castro, the French engineer Carlos Lemaur, and illustrators such as Jovellanos and Francisco Cabarrús; also Domingo González de Argandoña and his wife, Jovellanos's sister Josefa, and most likely Olavide, Samaniego and the mathematician Benito Bails. One day, according to the famous libertine Giacomo Casanova in his Memoirs, he was invited to lunch by his ambassador Alvise Sebastiano Mocenigo together with Campomanes, Mengs and a certain Olivares, who is Olavide. And left this portrait of him:

Campomanes, who has left in his country a reputation of great intelligence, of knowledge and of encouragement, was a small, dark, unmistakable man; but they were tempted to find him handsome by hearing him speak: his eloquence, alive and impetuous, was full of authority and seduction. Campomanes bizqueaba, the Earl of Aranda and the general of the Jesuits also bizqueaban. I carried the conversation on the ground of that war that these three characters of strange glance were made, war whose outcome feared for Campomanes... Filled with courage, perseverance and sagacity, Campomanes passed by sincere and disinterested man in his opposition; it was only the love of freedom and of the homeland that inspired him; therefore he enjoyed the estimation of the most illustrated classes.

Another picture is offered by the Danish scholar Daniel Gotthilf Moldenhawer:

At eight o'clock in the night I went to the house of Campomanes; his antenna was, as always, completely full, because, even though he is in the Council of Castile, he is harassed by people from all over Laya, both high and low. The multitude of businesses you have to attend to is cause you very often forget your promises... The good Campomanes had forgotten the offer he made me; but again he promised me letters for various people, including for a monk of El Escorial, a Hellenist sage, of whom he told me that he possesses deeper knowledge than those of Pérez Bayer and that he has copied for his hand a half dozen codices; he also promised me letters for Toledo and other populations. Of what there is no possibility, in a conversation with Campomanes, it is to get bazaar, as it is not taking advantage of the momentary pause that follows the end of a period

This active, energetic, self-sufficient and monologuing character was also appreciated, with some oppression, by the contemporary subordinates who attended his meetings:

The march is always one. In these joints no one but the President speaks, no one lets himself speak, because he has no time: the President's voice is cast on everything and of all, she is dilated and spreads to everything, takes place above all, penetrates the pro and the contras of things, combines their extremes and analyzes them, vierte erudition from within and outside of the times past and present, explains what is the agreement that corresponds and no one dictates from then; He sends to read what is already written and asks, by attention or form, "What does the board look like for the amendment or the addition?" For attention or form, answer the board that "is very good." May God not replenish any vowel with foundation or with scruples, for here he contends it, perhaps the dismay and the final decisive voice of the President. When God has wanted no one to speak a word, finished together, either at two o'clock, or at three o'clock, with mute vows or vowels. Usually this is what everyone sees in them, being the joints of this class

In 1780 he received the title of Count of Campomanes, according to a law that allowed influential people access to the nobility, although without heraldic tradition. In 1786 he was appointed Governor of the Council of Castile and in 1788, due to the intrigues of Charles IV's favorite, the Count of Floridablanca, he fell into disgrace. On September 30, 1789, he was appointed President of the Parliament and Governor of the Council of Castile on the occasion of the death of Carlos III, and presented a report on the restoration of the succession to the throne of women, which was unanimously approved, but which never published. In 1791, Governor of Her Majesty's Royal Council. Between 1798 and 1801 he was appointed Director of the Royal Academy of History for the second time. His fall from grace revived his enemies, one of whom, the Jesuit Francisco Xavier Miranda, wrote an acid against him The Prosecutor audited, that is, Examination of the Consultation of Don Pedro Rodriguez Campomanes (1792).

On his death in 1802, the Spanish scholar Joaquín Traggia composed and printed a funeral oration; at the Royal Academy of Practical Jurisprudence, J. García Doménech read an Praise of the Most Excellent Mr. Conde de Campomanes..., which was printed a year later in Madrid. And the first of the four inventories of his library was carried out, which revealed Campomanes' interest in issues related to the European continent and his deep knowledge of the economic, political and social reality of the time.^{[citation required]} After the room, his library was appraised and sold in 1842 for more than fourteen thousand reales. It consisted of five thousand books on law, science and arts, history and geography and philology (grammars, dictionaries etc.). Only forty percent were written in Spanish. To these five thousand should be added another thousand prohibited books that were separated from it. As for literature itself, he was only interested in poetry, and practically nothing in narrative.

An oil portrait of Campomanes, the work of Joaquín Inza, was destroyed during the Asturian Revolution of 1934, and only a few photographs remain and a copy by Vicente Arbiol deposited at the Royal Institute of Asturian Studies. Two more oil portraits have survived; the first was made by Anton Raphael Mengs between 1774 and 1776, and was owned by Campomanes, to whom the painter gave it as a gift. The second, best known, is the one made by Francisco Bayeu in 1777, owned by the Royal Academy of History.

Works

Ancient editions

1747 - Historical distortions of the order, and Cavallery of the Templars, or summary record of its principles, foundation, institute, progress, and extinction at the Council of Vienna. And an appendix, or supplement, in which the rule of this order is put, and different Privileges of it, with many Dissertations, and Notes, touchers not only to this Order, but to those of S. Juan, Teutonicos, Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara, Avis, Montesa, Christo, Monfrac, and other Churches, and Monasteries of Spain, with several Cathalogos. Madrid: Antonio Pérez de Soto Office;
1750 - Spanish economic policy sketch, delineated on the state of your interests, manuscript signed with the pseudonym of Rodrigo Perianes Campo and published by Jorge Cejudo in 1984.
1750 - Reflections on Spanish jurisprudence
1750 - Address on the establishment of laws, and obligation of subjects to conform to themLatin. Premied by the Academy of Good Letters of Bastia, on the island of Corsica.
1752 - Address of the Gift of the Patronato.
1755 - Representation of Mr. Dn. Pedro Rodríguez Campomanes to the Academy on the formation of a collection of inscriptions, speech read in the HRA.
1756 - Maritime Antiquity of the Republic of Cartago, with the Periplo of its General Hannon, translated from the Greek, and illustrated by D. Pedro Rodríguez Campománes, Lawyer of the Councils, General Advisor of the Spanish Posts and Posts etc.. Madrid: Print by Antonio Pérez de Soto.
1757 - Memorial of the Principality of Asturias, on the grievances of the operations made by the Commissioners to regulate the quota corresponding to the Unique Contribution.
1761 - Itinerary of the Posta Races within and outside the Reyno, which also contains the Laws and Privileges with which the Posts are governed in Spain, from their establishment. And news of the current foreign currency species, reduced to that of Spain, with the prices to which the Posts are paid in the various Countries. Madrid: Print by Antonio Pérez de Soto.
1762 - Geographical news of the Reyno and roads of Portugal Madrid: Joaquín Ibarra, 1762.
1762 - Reflections on Spanish Trade in India
1763 - Summary of the Gypsies police record to deal with the exercises of the civil life of the rest of the nation.
1764 - Fiscal response on abolishing the rate and establishing grain trade.
1764 - Explanation and Supplement of the two published Instructions, the first in 25 July 1751, and the second in 17 November 1759, for the recollection and useful application to the Exército, Marina, or public works, of all vagrants and ill entertained, in accordance also with what on this point are prevented by the Laws of the Reynold.
1765 - News of life and works of the m[whispering] i[lighting] and r[reserving] p[adre] d[on] f[ray] Benito Gerónimo Feijoo, Benedictine Monge of the Congregation of Spain, Professor of Retired Theology Primary of the University of Oviedo, General Master of its Order, of the Council of S[u] M[draw]. Madrid: Imprenta Real de la Gaceta.
1765 - Treaty of the royalty of amortization in the qual is demonstrated by the series of the various ages, from the Birth of the Church in all centuries and Catholic countries, the constant use of civil authority, to prevent the unlimited enagenations of real estate in Churches, Communities and other hands-deads; with a news of the fundamental laws of the Spanish Monarchy on this point that begins with the successive Kings and continues in common demand. Madrid: Imprenta de la Gazeta.
1767 - Fiscal opinion of the expulsion of the Jesuits of Spain;
1768 - Adjusted Memorial, made of order of the full Council, at the request of the Fiscal Lords, of the Advisory Record seen by S. Al. to him, on the content, and expressions of different Letters of the Bishop of Cuenca Don Isidro de Carvajal and Lancaster. Madrid: Office of Joaquín Ibarra.
1768 - Adjusted Memorial, Council order, with citation of the Ilmo. Sr. D. Pedro Rodríguez Campomanes, Fiscal del mismo, y de la Cámara, y de D. Joseph de Pinedo, Caballero de la Orden de Santiago, Procurador Síndico general de esta Villa de Madrid, que contains the cars and orders given by the Council on different branches of the Abastos de Madrid, desde que en el año de 1766 se poner de orden de S. M. a cargo de su Corregidor y Ayuntamiento, Madrid: Antonio Sanz Office, 2 volumes in folio.
1769 - Answer by the Prosecutors of the Council, Mr. Campomanes and Mr. Moñino, in which they propose the formation of a Brotherhood for the promotion of the Real Hospicios of Madrid, and S. Fernando, expressing the ways in which such useful establishments can be fostered so that, examined all, the charity of the neighborhood is included to this work pia so privileged. Madrid: Antonio Sanz Office.
1770 - Fair trial on the Parma monitor
1771 - In the name of the General Assembly, the General Assembly of the Republic of Merida, the General Assembly of the Republic of Merida, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Merida, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Merida, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Merida,. Madrid: Joaquín Ibarra.
1771 - General curriculum for the University of Salamanca by the Royal and Supreme Council of Castile (Salamanca: Antonio Villagordo and Alcaraz, 1771)
1774 - Address on the Promotion of the Popular Industry; Madrid: Print of Antonio Sancha.
1775 - Address on the popular education of artisans and their promotion; Madrid: Print of Antonio Sancha.
1775 - 1777: Appends to Popular Education. Part one, which contains the reflections leading to understanding the origin of the decay of the trades, and arts in Spain, during the last century, as shown by the coetane writers, who reprint in this Appendix, or whose passages are given to the letter; Madrid: Print of Antonio Sancha, 4 vols.
1776 - Comments for the orderly composition of funeral praises
1778 - Extremadura travelsigned on May 4, 1778.
1778 - Notices to the Master of writing, about the courting, and formation of letters, which will be comprehensible to the children. Madrid: Antonio de Sancha office.
1779 - Response of the three Prosecutors of the Council in the advisory file of the Cartuxas of Spain, Madrid: Print by Antonio Martín.
1781 - Alegación Fiscal, que type el Ilmo. Lord Count of Campomanes, Knight Pensioned of the distinguished Order of Charles III, of the Council and Chamber of S. M. and his first Prosecutor, that the case of the reversal of the Crown of Jurisdiction, Señorío, and Vasallaje of the Valley of Orosco is declared to have arrived.
1783 - Adjusted Memorial of the Concording Expedint, which deals with the honored Council of the Mesta, with the King's General Deputation, and the Province of Extremadura, before the Ilmo. Mr. Conde de Campomanes y del Consejo y Cámara de S. M., primera Fiscal, y Presidente del mismo Honrado Concejo. Madrid: Blas Román, 2 tomos.
1783 - Alegación Fiscal, que type el Ilmo. Sr Conde de Campomanes, Caballero Pensionado de la distinguished Orden de Carlos III, del Consejo, y Cámara de S. M. y su primera Fiscal, sobre que se declarase haber llegar el caso de la reversion a la Corona de la Jurisdicción, Señorío, y Vasallage de la Villa de Aguilar de Campos, y otros derechos. Madrid.
1784 - Adjusted Memorial, done in pursuance of Council Decree, with summons of the three Fiscal Lords, and of the Attorney General of the Reynold, of the Advisory Records, which has been instructed, by virtue of Royal Order, for the full Council to state its opinion on the context of a representation made to S.M., by the Messrs. Marques de la Corona, y D. Juan Antonio de Albalá Íñigo, Fiscales del Consejo de Hacienda, en que solicitan que mediante el derecho eminente, que hay en la Corona, para reintegrarse en los patrimonio, y efectos quepartos de del Patrimonial Real, por ventatempes, o perpetuas, restitutiondo el precio primitivo de ellos; S. M. ser ser a termina la puerta de todo pleito en este materia, expid.
1784 - Preventions and rules, to be observed on the 13th, 14,7 15th of this July, in the functions, and joys that celebrate Madrid.
1788 - Aims of what matters to find out in order to correct the great problem of whether Spain is in the trade of the West Indies to follow the old system, or an indefinite freedom
"Discourse on the Chronology of the Goddes Kings", inserted in the Portraits of the Kings of Spain from Atanarico to our Monarch Catholic Don Carlos III... according to the oldest originals... and the summary of the life of each king (Madrid: Ibarra, 1782-1788, 3 vols.) by Manuel Rodríguez.
1790 - Report on Greek Head Antiquesmanuscript.
1790 - Analysis of the progress of the Trade Board since its origin in the time of Charles II, and a timely comparison of the rules governing France and England to bring their traffic to the increase that today has
1790 - Dictamen sent to Lerena by enlargement to the report on the Philippine Company, about prohibiting foreigners from introducing muslins
1791 - Record on giving new plant to the General Trade Board and the improvement that should be made in the system of the Maritime Consulates
1792 - Observations to combine the political system of Europe
Legal Historical Speech, which proves the right of the Serenísima Señora Infanta Doña María de Portugal, the eldest daughter of Infante D. Duarte, Duquesa de Parma, the Reyno and Corona de Portugal; and the one that by this derivation corresponds to the Catholic Magestad of Mr. Carlos III, King of Spain, and of the Indies. Manuscript.

Modern editions

Collection of the tax claims of His Excellency Count de Campomanesed. de J. Alonso, Madrid, Imprenta de Repullés, 1841-1843, 4 ts.
Treaty of the royalty of amortization, Madrid, 1975 (ed. facsimilar), introductory study by Francisco Tomás and Valiente.
Fiscal opinion of the expulsion of the Jesuits of Spain (1766-1767), Madrid, 1977, introductory study and edition of Jorge Cejudo and Teófanes Egido
Address on the promotion of popular industry. Speech on popular education of artisans, Madrid, 1975, edition and preliminary study John Reeder.
Epistolary, Volume I (1747-1777). Edition of Miguel Avilés and Jorge Cejudo. Madrid, Fundación Universitaria Española, 1983.
Spanish economic policy framework. Edition prepared by Jorge Cejudo
(attributed) Sinapia. A Spanish Utopia of the Century of Lights. Miguel Avilés Edition
Appendix to Popular Education. Oviedo, Instituto Feijoo de Estudios del Siglo XVIII, 2009.
Political Unpublished ed. de S. M. Coronas González, Oviedo, Junta Municipal del Principado de Asturias, 1996.
Gift writers, edition and preliminary study of S. M. Coronas,Oviedo, 1993, 2 vols.

Curiosities

The naturalists Hipólito Ruiz López and José Antonio Pavón y Jiménez named the genus Campomanesia, of the botanical family Myrtaceae, in homage to the Count in 1794.

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