Managing the Empire’s Wealth: Environmental Thought during Spain’s Golden Age, 1492-1618

Abstract

During the sixteenth century, or Spain's so-called "Golden Age," Spain's understanding of wealth, resource management, and cosmology underwent massive evolution in the face of gaining an empire in the Americas. Before the conquest of the Americas, resource scarcity and the need for careful resource management defined Spanish environmental thought. Afterward, the idea that the Americas could provide infinite wealth took precedence. But as the century progressed and the empire declined, people from different parts of Spanish society--municipal councilmen, conquistadors, royal cosmographers, and royal reformers--reconciled these two ideas into one line of thought: abundant wealth could be harmful if not managed correctly. This dissertation situates Spanish economic thought within the broader discussion on European economic history, the history of science, and environmental thought.