From otium to nec-otiumVile Trades, Dishonorable Entrepreneurs.The Case of Spain

Resumen

Abstract The present article seeks to analyze the genesis and evolution of the so-called “cascada del desprecio” (“cascade of contempt.” Our trans.) and its weight in shaping collective “mentalities” (honor, pride, work, enterprise, usury, leisure, business), with profound impacts on the social and economic development of European countries, particularly Mediterranean countries and, more specifically, Spain. However, what does the expression refer to? In the words of a renowned modernist, Pere Molas, it could be summarized as follows: “Each social group sought to identify itself with the one above it, erasing the differences separating them, and at the same time trying to distance itself from the group below it, exaggerating the reasons for separation as much as possible”. The “cascade of contempt” permeated the cultural and legal codes of Mediterranean societies. Let us attempt to clarify this hypothesis further. In preindustrial agrarian societies, social elites possessed a worldview (Weltanschauung) that legitimized their pre-eminence. With it, they sought to ensure the reproduction of the economic and social conditions on which their power was founded. Underpinned by heterogeneous doctrinal bases (moral, economic, political), they sought to escape the relativism of the future and present themselves “not as a product of a mutable reality but as a model by which to measure mutability". It is obvious that the topic studied here, as it unfolds over the “very long term” in a historical sense and involves a plurality of analytical variables (economic, cultural, political), necessarily requires the selection of documentary sources. For the same reason, there may always be thematic or information issues that are not addressed or are dealt with only partially. As a justification, it can only be argued that the ultimate aim of this work has been to bring order to the available investigations and to offer a state of the question that serves as a starting point for deepening the details here barely contemplated.