Realpolitik, Economy and Propaganda on the British Parliamentarism: the Political Testament of the Admiral Byng (1780)

Abstract

El testamento político del almirante Byng (1780) is the translation of an anonymous French work published in 1759, in the heat of the Seven Years' War. The translation is a significant case of the international circulation of ideas in the eighteenth-century Europe. If the book´s formal aspects are an example of new literary tools to deal with political and economic issues, its content is even more relevant. From both perspectives, the work is an example of enlightened propaganda and realpolitik. Defending the French approach to the aforementioned war conflict, the book addresses critically the problems derived from the British parliamentary system and take a stance for free trade not subordinated to the privileges of large commercial companies. Such political and economic contents, together with the declaration of the British-Spanish war between 1779 and 1783, were at the interest of the Spanish authorities who commissioned the translation of the book and its later dissemination.

Fecha de envío / Submission date: 23/10/2018

Fecha de aceptación /Acceptance date: 15/12/2018