Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

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This article is about the Spanish writer. For the Cuban town, see Jovellanos, Cuba.

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Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes - Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos.jpg

Jovellanos painted by Goya, 1798

Born Baltasar Melchor Gaspar María

5 January 1744

Gijón, Asturias, Spain

Died 27 November 1811 (aged 67)

Vega de Navia, Spain

Occupations

Authorphilosopher

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (born Gaspar Melchor de Jove y Llanos, 5 January 1744 – 27 November
1811) was a Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and a major figure of the Age of
Enlightenment in Spain.

Life and influence of his works

Jovellanos Street in Madrid

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos (pseudonym Jovino) was born at Gijón in Asturias, Spain. Selecting law as
his profession, he studied at Oviedo, Ávila, and the University of Alcalá, before becoming a criminal
judge at Seville in 1767.[1]

His integrity and ability were rewarded in 1778 by a judgeship in Madrid, and in 1780 by appointment to
the council of military orders. In the capital Jovellanos was a respected member of the literary and
scientific societies; he was commissioned by the Society of Friends of the Country (Madrid's economic
society) in 1787 to write his most well-known and influential work, Informe en el expediente de ley
agraria ("A report on the dossier of the Agrarian Law"),[1] a project which he completed in 1794, and
published in 1795.

In his work on agrarian law, he called on the crown to eliminate the concentration of land ownership in
the entailment of landed estates, ownership of land by the Catholic Church, and the existence of
common lands unavailable to private ownership. In his view, Spain's wealth lay in its agricultural
productivity which would allow its population to grow and prosper. In the eighteenth-century regime of
land tenure, productivity was stifled by the latifundia (large landed estates) of the political elites and the
Catholic Church as an institution, and common lands where there was no incentive for individuals to
invest in its productivity. Jovellanos was influenced by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776),
which saw self-interest as the motivating force for economic activity.[2] Jovellanos's recommendations
were not implemented in Spain, but did influence thinking about agrarian land reform in the viceroyalty
of New Spain by Bishop Manuel Abad y Queipo in the early nineteenth century before its independence
in 1821. In turn, his writings influenced Alexander von Humboldt's thinking and writing on land issues in
Mexico.[3] Jovellanos also influenced thinking about agrarian land reform in Mexico in the late period of
President Porfirio Díaz's regime by Andrés Molina Enríquez, who was the intellectual father of the article
that empowered the State to expropriate land and other resources following the Mexican Revolution
Constitution of 1917.[4]

Involved in the disgrace of his friend, Francisco de Cabarrús, Jovellanos spent the years 1790 to 1797 in
what amounted to exile at Gijón, engaged in literary work and in founding the Asturian institution for
agricultural, industrial, social and educational reform throughout his native province.[1]

He was summoned again to public life in 1797 when, turning down the post of ambassador to Russia, he
accepted that of minister of grace and justice, under "the prince of peace", Godoy, whose attention had
been directed to him by Cabarrús, then one of his favorites. Displeased with Godoy's policy and conduct,
Melchor de Jovellanos combined with his colleague Saavedra to procure his dismissal. Godoy returned
to power in 1798 and Jovellanos was again sent away to Gijón.[1]

Together with Asturian intellectual colleagues such as González Posada, Caveda y Solares and his sister
Xosefa Xovellanos, Jovellanos then focused on the study of Asturias. He intended to start several
projects in the study of his native Asturian language, including an Academy of Asturian Language and an
Asturian dictionary, but in 1801 he was imprisoned in Bellver Castle (Majorca) and was forced to put all
his cultural projects on hold.

The Peninsular War, and the advance of the French into Spain, set him once more at liberty. Joseph
Bonaparte, having gained the Spanish throne, made Jovellanos the most brilliant offers, but the latter
rejected them all and joined the patriotic opposition. He became a member of the Supreme Central
Junta and contributed to reorganizing the Cortes Generales. This accomplished, the Junta at once fell
under suspicion, and Jovellanos was involved in its fall. In 1811 he was enthusiastically welcomed to
Gijón; but the approach of the French forced him to leave once more. The vessel in which he sailed was
compelled by bad weather to put in at Vega de Navia (now known as Puerto de Vega) in Asturias, and
there he died from pneumonia on November 27, 1811.[1]

Pedro de Silva, the second President of the Principality of Asturias, is a direct descendant of Gaspar
Melchor de Jovellanos through his mother, María Jesús Cienfuegos-Jovellanos Vigil-Escalera.[5]