The new organization of the economic-administrative area of the royal navy. Implementation and validation in the department of Cartagena (1772-1788)

Abstract

The military and economic disaster that Spain's participation in the Seven Years' War (1761-1763) meant for Spain forced Charles III to promote a reform process at all levels of the Monarchy in order to maintain its possessions. The Royal Navy was one of the institutions most affected by the reforms, which also reached its administrative area. In this particular environment, the changes were brought about by new ordinances published in 1772 (Ordnance and Engineers) and in 1776 (Arsenals), which implemented new processes, new managers and an innovative form of financing based on budgetary control. This new system of economic-administrative management of the Navy was highly criticized at the time, accusing it of not being worthy of the name and of being one of those responsible for the ills that afflicted the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Salazar and Salazar, 1814). The aim of the thesis is to corroborate or refute the existence of an economic-administrative management system in the Royal Navy in the period 1772-1788, both from a theoretical point of view and the verification of its practical application in the peninsular Departments.