History

The beginnings

The beginnings of our Institution can be found dating back to the figure of the Consolat del Mar, an organisation which was established in the ancient territories of the Crown of Aragon at the end of the XIII Century in order to handle commercial and maritime matters, initially for the Mediterranean and later for the Atlantic routes,such as corporative law and which during the Middle Ages gave way to various institutions, such as our Royal Corporation, promoter of the generosity, the spirit of solidarity and vision of the future that the commercial bourgeoisie of Barcelona in the XVIII century showed in its constant desire to create an organisation that was representative of economic activity charged with studying, defending and promoting measures capable of facing up to the economic realities of those times.

Origins

We have to go back to the 16th of March 1758, when Fernando VI granted formal permission for setting up the Real Junta Particular de Comercio {Royal Private Board of Commerce} in order to be able to find the deepest routes to the promotion of valuable studies and a defending of professional activity. In 1775 several petitions to the Board by groups of businessmen are recorded for research works to be carried out relative to business activity. These aspirations were intermittent realities until on the 26th of April 1787 the Academia de Comercio {The Academy of Commerce} was inaugurated. With this same spirit the Comisión de Fábricas {The Factories Committee} became a reality, a remote antecedent of the Fomento de Trabajo Nacional {National Work Promotion Office} and of the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País {Economic Society of Friends of the Country}, all of which were patrons of the arts and sciences.

From that time a very tangible desire was evident for uniting research and teaching with the concern for the economic realities of the era and a willingness for advising Public Bodies. All of which is true to the source of thought and action, a motto which even today is that of the Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras: “Utraque Unum”, emblem of the Spanish colonial coins which the Royal Corporation adopted as its emblem on its seals and its medals.

Throughout the period between the end of the XVIII century and commencement of the XX century political and social movements took place in Spain that caused important imbalances. Encounters between cultures, military confrontations, revolutions and the invasion of foreign troops, caused a breakdown in institutions and led to a confusion with regard to the means aimed at attaining the objectives of creating centres of excellence for the study and dissemination of theoretical and technical elements focused on channelling economic and financial activity towards the progress of society. It was seen that institutions with the same or similar objectives as those of the Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras underwent different levels of fortune, although in many cases their historical evolution is unique: intermittent disappearance and reappearance.

Consolidation

The current institution

International Development

The

Real Academia de Ciencias Económicas y Financieras

is the only Royal Corporation in the Spanish State to have its headquarters in Barcelona.

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