3 - Imperial Wars and Loans from New Spain, 1780–1800

Summary

I have resolved that once only, and in character of a Donation, one peso be contributed to Me by each free man, including Indians, and other castes that make up the People; and two pesos from Spaniards and Nobles, making up the many distinguished Subjects found in the Indies. …

Carlos III (August 17, 1780)

During the last third of the eighteenth century, the geopolitical and military strategy adopted by the Bourbon regime to strengthen the Spanish empire was based on an aggressive fiscal campaign in both the metropolis and the Spanish American colonies. Despite success in increasing tax income, a succession of wars pushed expenditures beyond the rise in revenues: these included a new war against Great Britain (1779–1783), the even more costly war against the French Convention (1793–1795), and then two naval wars with Britain (1796–1801 and 1805–1808). As a result, the Spanish monarchy eventually found itself obliged to recur to debt, although this was a recourse that royal officials at Madrid had long avoided.

For the greater part of the eighteenth century, the Bourbon regime in Spain had used taxes to finance rising defense expenditures and wars, in contrast with its imperial rivals, Britain and France, which issued huge amounts of debt as a result of the pronounced expansion in military expenditures and particularly of naval forces.