The collapse of a polity, the birth of states : municipal debt, local conflicts and state formation in the former Crown of Aragon (1740–1770)

Abstract

In south-western Europe, the transition from pre-modern polities to modern states started in the central decades of the eighteenth century. This article explores why and how the plural, judicial and polycentric practices that structured social and political life before circa 1750 were progressively replaced by more unified, administrative and hierarchical repertoires of practices. The article rethinks the formation of the state through the conflicts over the debt of four municipalities of the former Crown of Aragon in the monarchies of Spain, the Savoy and the Two Sicilies. The global wars of the mid-eighteenth century and the subsequent extraordinary fiscal pressure fuelled local conflicts that led to the collapse of the ancient practices that structured life in common. However, the new social and political arrangements that were born out of the ancient polities and started replacing them were not imposed from above, but rather ideated, negotiated and implemented by a myriad of local actors and corporations. The article asserts that local realities were much more complex and polyhedric than what has traditionally been stated. As in other European regions, in the south-western polities of the Old Continent the modern state also emerged, first and foremost, from below.