From fiscal exemption to agrarian capitalism: a comparative study of the Castilian hidalguía and the English gentry in the early modern era (16th–18th centuries)

This article has been published in the "History and Art Journal", 1(1), Article 4, 2026. Abstract:This article compares the Castilian hidalguía and the English gentry (16th–18th centuries) to explain the divergent economic trajectories of Spain and England. It argues that while the hidalgo relied on a rigid, state-enforced juridical estate based on tax immunity and blood purity, the gentry functioned as an open socio-economic class predicated on landownership and commercial viability. Through an analysis of agrarian capitalism, fiscal-political representation, and literary archetypes (Cervantes and Austen), this study posits that Castilian institutional rigidity (mayorazgo and labor taboos) petrified rural capital into rentier structures. Conversely, the gentry’s entrepreneurial pragmatism and fluid social mobility catalyzed the structural infrastructure necessary for the British Industrial Revolution.