The use of budgets in the Osuna's Ducal estate (1860-69)

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Spanish policy during the 19th century suffered frequent changes between liberal and conservative discourses in the government and even in the different promulgated Constitutions. Moreover, accounting changes also happened in Spain during the same period, for instance, the implementation of annual budgets in the Estate accounts. The literature has pointed out the use of budgets in public firms since 1850 onwards, although only as a limit of payments. This work deals with the use of budgets in a private organisation, the Osuna's ducal estate (ODE), one of the more important Spanish aristocratic organisations. In the studied period, the ODE was characterized by the elimination of aristocratic privileges during the first half of the 19th century, the increase of the patrimonial spread, the high level of indebtedness and the turnover in the people who managed the organisation, mixing people coming from the context with people formed inside the organisation. This point was a key in the process of implementation and use of budgets. The work is based on the description and analysis of primary sources kept in the Section Nobility of the National historic Archive and in the Public Documents Historical Archive of Madrid. The discussion allows showing how the annual budget of 1862 reflected the situation of the ODE. On the other hand, the work also analyses the internal debate on the use and implementation of the budgets. In the estate, there were opinions that rejected its use, people who treated to use it as a tool useful for the estate management and the creditors showed an attitude favourable to the use of budgets as a limit of authorised payments. The last one was the position that was imposed since 1869. Thus, the debate on the budgets in the ODE was parallel to the conflict between liberal and conservative political discourses that characterised the Spanish policy during the period. In the ODE, the creditors, belonging to the emerging bourgeoisie, imposed their opinions face to an organisation unable to adapt it to the environmental changes.