ABSTRACT

This chapter offers an approach to Spain’s provincial banking sectors based on the individuals who sat on the governing bodies of banks of issue in the period 1844–1874. Both France and England witnessed acts of regicide and the bourgeoisie’s ascent to political and economic power. In Spain, the origins of the “financial bourgeoisie” or “banking elite” date from the middle decades of the nineteenth century. The social group labelled as “bourgeoisie” has a complex origin that stretches back to Spain’s ancien regime. A large number made up the financial bourgeoisie that was rising to greater prominence in Spanish economic and political life as the century wore on. Many provincial banks brought together groups of interests that had a long-standing tradition of collaborating in their businesses. The groups had some degree of stability because they had made joint investments in the past.