Dreams of Reality: Enlightened Hopes for an Unattainable Spain

D ream s of Reality: Enlightened H opesqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPON for an U nattainable Spain IR IS M . Z A V A L A For skill is know n to all To be ofgreater worth than raw m aterial. Tomas d eIriarte In 1651, Baltasar Gracian published in partial anonymity one of the finest examples of the allegorical utopian novel in Spanish letters, El C riticon. Critilo (The Critic) finds a primitive man in an uninhabited island after a shipwreck. Some time later, this primi­ tive creature is given a name—Andrenio (Adam)—and both the civilized man and the primitive share doubts, experiences, con­ flicts, and problems. To make a long novel short, another ship­ wreck allows them to leave the island, and they start a lengthy journey through the world in quest of Felisinda (Happiness). Neither Critilo nor Andrenio ever solves the essential mystery of “utopia.The ideal world is not to be found, regardless of what men can do to change society. Man, in a sense, has been doomed to evil by God. The only possibility for the realization of the utopian dream— if any—is in the afterworld, effected by virtue alone. As baroque works of art, few novels have surpassed El C riticon, which was translated into English in 1681; it inspired many imitations and was also acclaimed by Voltaire, apparently influencing C andide.1 Imaginary voyages to lands of utopian perfection were common in European literature of the eighteenth century. Political or social 459 4 6 0 / cbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA IR IS M . Z A V A L A qponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA fantasie s ab out d istant kingd oms and trave ls to unre al pe rfe ct state s ab ound e d . Spain, howe ve r,was some what of an e xce ption to this tre nd ,although some works of fiction d idmake use of the imaginary voy age to criticize Spanish socie ty .In this e ssay ,I am particularly conce rne dwith political tre atise s,and how the most progre ssive of the m manife ste da utopian d re am.Re asons for the e me rge nceof this socioe conomiclite ratureare manifold ,the most striking b e ing social and e conomic d e cline ,as we ll as pre ssing political prob le ms which le ft little space for spe culation and fantasy . Economic lite rature had flourishe d since the sixte e nth ce nturyand was late rrid iculouslycalle d arbitrism o b y the Siglo de O ro write rs. 2 My point is that the d e te rmining policie swhich the Spanish reform adores trie dto imple me ntwe re not the orie ssimply b orrowe d from the philosophes. Since the re ign of Philip II (1556-98), if not before, lengthy m em oriales or discursos were sent to the king or to his counsellors.3 Topics would vary from agrarian to industrial problems, but the best were minute analyses of specific social and economic conditions. The influx of gold and silver or the price revolution—so well studied by E. J. Hamilton4 — and the ultimate ruinous extension of credit had opened a great chasm between rich and poor. Vagabondage, prostitution, ban­ ditry, and riots were the signs of the bitter despair in which commoners, decimated by famine and disease, lived in preindustrial societies. No wonder that in 1600, after a great plague, a letrado of Valladolid, Martin Gonzalez de Cellorigo, sent one of the most lucid critiques of Spanish society to the king. In a highly persuasive fashion Cellorigo summarized, in his M em orial de la politica necesaria y util restauracion a la republica de Espana, the basic features of economic decline, and stated in conclusion: “Spain is poor because it is rich.” He used the dialectical method in a masterly way, arguing that in Spain there was no middle class and the commoners lived in subhuman conditions. This kind of ideology would be given a more theoretical form by the writers of the Enlightenment. Analyses such as this are the common ground, the substratum of the eighteenth-century reform ism o, so much so that some of D ream...