Pedro Rodríguez de Campomanes

Pedro Rodríguez, Conde de Campomanes (1 July 1723 – 3 February 1802), Spanish statesman, economist, and writer, was born at Santa Eulalia de Sorribia, in Asturias. He was an adherent of the position that the state held supremacy over the Church, often called Erastianism. Campomanes was part of the government of Spanish Bourbon monarch, Charles III.

There is little information concerning his biography. Even though one branch of his family were hidalgos, they were not wealthy. On the death of his father, his mother entrusted his upbringing to an uncle connected to the Colegiata de Santillana del Mar. There Campomanes demonstrated his precocious intelligence in study of the classical languages. At age 10 he translated portions of Ovid. He went on to study law at the University of Oviedo, concluding those studies in Seville, then moving to Madrid to open a law office.

An avid learner, he was especially interested in history, economics, philology, and studied ancient and modern languages, including Arabic.

This lawyer of "obscure origin" was to the attention of the crown with his 1747 publication on the history of the Knights Templar, which gained recognition by the Royal Academy of History and influenced the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. In 1750, he wrote under the pseudonym Rodrigo Perianes Campo an important text on the political economy of Spain.

Among his principal works are two admirable essays, Discurso sobre el fomento de la industria popular, 1774, which had a print run of 30,000 and circulated widely among elites in Spain, followed by Discurso sobre la educación popular de los artesanos y su fomento, 1775, in which he argued for the revival of crafts in Spain as a source of economic wealth. In another publication, Tratado de la regalia de amortización, he traced the history of monarchical limits on the Church's acquisition of real property. By the seventeenth century, Spain's economy was stagnant and the Church wealthy, such that during the Bourbon Reforms, limits on the Church's holding of property was seen as a way to make the economy more dynamic.

His works on ways to revive the Spanish economy were highly influential. He examined the origin of the decay of arts and manufactures in Spain during the last century and pointed out the steps necessary for improving or re-establishing the old manufactures. His detailed work contains a collection of royal ordinances and edicts regarding the encouragement of arts and manufactures, and the introduction of foreign raw materials. He examined the role of artisan guilds, and denounced their privileges and stifling of entry of new artisans to guilds. He approved of attracting foreign artisans to Spain, and also suggested women should work. He stated bluntly, "the most secure barometer by which one ought to measure the progress or decadence of the State" was the industrial progress.

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