This paper transcribes and annotates five unpublished letters that Manuel María Gutiérrez, Álvaro Flórez Estrada and the Marquis of Valle Santoro respectively sent to Jean-Baptiste Say. An initial hypothesis holds the importance of this correspondence in order to argue the connection of the Spanish authors with the canonical works. We focus on several questions related to the transmission of economic ideas. First, the translation of Say’s work is a collective project structured around the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País de Madrid. Secondly, we explain how the translator expurgates the condemnable passages in order to publish Say’s Traité d`économie politique in Spanish, those connected to the influence of religion on economic development and public education to be exact.

Among the British travellers who travelled across Spain in the eighteenth century, Alexander Jardine and Joseph Townsend were those whose itineraries were the most complete and who paid more attention to socioeconomic analysis. Their identification of the specific economic problems coincides broadly with those of Spanish economists, and particularly with those of Campomanes, whose work is considered by them as a basic point of reference. However, there are discrepancies between the travellers and Spanish economists in respect to the general economic situation, the political system and certain government attitudes still based on a mercantilist approach. The reformist gradualism of Spanish economists clashed then with the proposals of the more profound socioeconomic reforms recommended by our travellers. Moreover, the optimism of Spanish economists about growth possibilities of the Spanish economy faced up to the negative overall view of British travellers.

This paper illustrates the spread of Jean-Baptiste Say's entrepreneur theory in Spain –a last contribution within the French tradition in which Richard Cantillon and A. R. J. Turgot were predecessors. We attempt to demonstrate that this is a special case, because, even though J. B. Say was the most important author from a publishing point of view, his economic theory of entrepreneurship had very little influence. The spread of economic ideas by way of translation and Spanish authors which employed J. B. Say's economic theory, give possible explanations to a paradox which had left economic policy without a theoretical reference. We analyse how Say's entrepreneur theory was received among Spanish authors in the 19th century, its degree of comprehension and the analytical additions made, and attempt to identify the real source of transmission.