Gaetano Filangieri's Political Economy in 18th Century Spain: «Reflexiones económico-políticas» (1792) by Francisco de Paula del Rey

G. Filangieri’s Scienza della legislazione enjoyed considerable success in Spain between 1780 and 1840. The economic ideas expounded in Book ii excited particular interest amongst Spanish liberals and members of the Enlightenment in this country. Nevertheless, his ideas did not always receive a warm response. This article begins by looking at the contents of Book ii and the reactions it aroused in Spain during the final decades of the eighteenth century and then goes on to provide an in-depth analysis of Francisco de Paula del Rey’s Reflexiones políticoeconómicas (1792). This text, which has only just come to light, contains a detailed refutation of Filangieri’s economic and political ideas. The author’s arguments have their roots in the Spanish Scholastic and Mercantilist movements. The book is further evidence of the existence of an active anti-enlightenment movement in eighteenth-century European economics that has so far received scant attention from researchers