page_title: Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos
section_title: Life and influence of his works
hierarchical_section_title: Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos / Life and influence of his works
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign of Calle de Jovellanos (street) in Madrid (Spain). Español: Placa de la Calle de Jovellanos de Madrid (España).
context_page_description: Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos was a Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and a major figure of the Age of Enlightenment in Spain.
context_section_description: 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.
  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"), 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.  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. 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  
  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.
  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 Cabarrus, 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.
  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 reorganize 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 Gijon; 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 Pue
caption: Jovellanos Street in Madrid
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "Sign of CALLE DE JOVELLANOS (street) in Centro District in Madrid (Spain). Tilework by Alfredo Ruiz de Luna.", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 1100D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:08:02 04:46:11", "Image Artist": "Luis Garcia ([[User:Zaqarbal|Zaqarbal]])", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "Luis Garcia ([[User:Zaqarbal|Zaqarbal]]) publishes this photo in Wikimedia Commons under [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html GFDL] and [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/es/deed.en Cc-by-sa-3.0-ES] licenses.", "Image ExifOffset": "630", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1540", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9327", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:07:20 20:18:52", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:07:20 20:18:52", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "2/3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "141", "EXIF SubSecTime": "16", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "16", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "16", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2463", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2463", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1416", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "854400/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "569600/119", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "113062091140", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[70, 300, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensMake": "Tamron", "EXIF LensModel": "70-300mm", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}