Resumen de The next generation funds and the bourbon reforms: a historical comparison
José Antonio Negrín de la Peña
This paper aims to make a comparative study between the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience advocated by the Spanish government in October 2020 under the name ofSpain can and one ofthe projects ofthe Enlightenment Movement ofthe late 18th century, also aimed at transforming the Spanish economy, which was none other than the Expediente Sobre el Informe de Ley Agraria (Report on the Agrarian Law) of 1795.The objectives set out in these lines are twofold. On the one hand, the aim is to highlight the reformist efforts of the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, using as an example one ofthe issues which was the subject ofmost debate in the political thought of the time: the agrarian question. On the other hand, to defend current attempts to promote the economic development of our country, which, as will be seen, have a historical basis. An attempt will define the different actions of both periods framed in the historical time frame that provoked them. It is necessary to start with some concepts and delimit this study's field of action. We will begin by establishing the comparative framework between the actions advocated to obtain the Next Generation funds and the actions and projects designed by the Enlightenment Movement in order to achieve the necessary "structural change" that was required, and now requires, in order to finally find the parallels between them.The conclusions ofthis comparative exercise willlead us to understand that many oftoday's problems have their origin in structural problems already defined in the past and that they deserve to be analysed with a particular historical perspective in order to understand them and, finally, to give them some solution (or at least to try to do so).
