The Spanish Naturalization of French merchants in Cadiz in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

The issue of Spanish naturalization of foreign merchants in Cadiz faces to an extraordinary paradox: while access to privileges through naturalization guaranteed many advantages –including a free, legally access to Spanish colonial trade and its fabuleux métaux– the number of cartas de naturaleza issued in Cadiz throughout the eighteenth century is quite small, and even negligible if compared to the numerical importance of foreign merchants communities in the city: in the late eighteenth century, foreigners accounted for approximately 10% population of Cadiz and a merchant of two was not Spanish. Therefore, this discrepancy raises the following question: why foreign merchants, despite being renowed for their opportunism and utilitarianism did not seek to acquire the Spanish nationality that would guarantee them so many advantages?