Las Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País: proyecto y realidad en la España de la Ilustración

The Economic Societies are one of the most interesting and best known achievements of the Spanish Enlightenment. This article is a study of the Economic Societies as a whole, focusing in particular on their origins, the steps to their creation, social composition, internal organization and especially on their achievements, in the fields both of the education and of the economy. It sums up the state of historical enquiry on the subject to date, and will be of value to all students of the eighteenth century