The Chinese Influence on the Spanish Enlightenmen

Sustained direct contact with China in the early modern period brought into focus distinguishing and---to many in the West---enviable characteristics of the Chinese Empire: riches, efficiency, a political system widely judged to be benign, and a culture superior in many respects to others, with arts, science, philosophies, and political institutions from which Europeans could learn. Especially in the eighteenth century, China inspired European monarchs and their courts as they sought to expand central power and create efficient bureaucratic states. A great deal is known about the impact of knowledge of China on the Enlightenment in France. I interrogate Spanish sources to see how, at the apogee of the Chinese influence on Europe, Sinophilia (with the attending Sinophobia) manifested itself in Spanish newspapers, consumer goods, and art. Indeed, unlike many historians, who use art only for illustrative purposes, I make artistic endeavors a central part of my work. Art is an expression of culture, and understanding a society's art makes it possible to comprehend that society's deepest aspirations and most compelling obsessions. By studying court entertainments and palace decor I argue that unlike other exotic societies, China had an inspirational effect on Spanish discourse and was explicitly deployed as a model for bolstering the monarchy's powers and prerogatives. Chiefly through an analysis of the content of periodicals, meanwhile, I approach the problems of how elite Spaniards perceived China and absorbed aspects of Chinese influence through anecdotes, stories, and descriptions. I bring to bear classified ads and cargo manifests to shed light on the types of objects that were characteristic of the elite lifestyle, which depended heavily for its aesthetic on the vogue of chinoiserie. I demonstrate that the elite's interest in China was far more than a passing fancy and constituted a serious interest sustained over many decades. The evidence I unfold tends to confirm that the Enlightenment in Spain, like that in Christendom generally, is best understood in the context of trans-Eurasian exchanges.