Defense of an Open Economy Model for Post–Civil War Spain

Abstract

This paper analyzes the work done by the economist Manuel de Torres Martínez (1903–1960), chair of economic theory at the University of Madrid, in the defense of an open economy model for Spain, through his prologues to the translations of foreign economics texts, during his period as director in Madrid of the economics section of the Publishing Aguilar (1945–60). With his work, Torres provided a guide to those responsible for economic policy to introduce the urgent changes needed by the Spanish economy, due to its problems of external deficit, inflation, and general shortages of products. At the same time, they contributed significantly to the diffusion and updating in Spain of the economic thought of foreign authors. Many of the ideas proposed by Torres and included in these prologues became a reality with the Stabilization Plan in 1959, which meant the definitive abandonment of an economic policy characterized by autarky and intense interventionism.