La cultura mercantil en la España moderna y la mentalidad empresarial [Mercantile Culture in Modern Age Spain and Entrepreneurial Outlook]

Ponencia

Abstract

Although it seems a contradiction to talk about a mercantile culture in early Modern Spain, it was a reality. Mercantile success or failure apart –something that deserves a more detailed chronological approach–, Spanish merchants showed a mercantile culture similar to that of their European counterparts. The paper goes into several aspects of this mercantile culture and entrepreneurial mentality. The final result –mercantile failure for Spain in comparative terms–, depended not that much on a lack of mercantile culture, as on a low degree of motivation and incentives coming from a political economy much more closed to private opportunities than what existed in other countries.