London (1824–1827): The Approach to British Classical Political Economy

The arrival in 1823 in Spain of the second restoration of absolutism, known as the Ominous Decade (1823–1833), forced Mora into exile in London, where he had had close contacts with other prominent Spanish exiles (Canga Argüelles and Flórez Estrada), as well as with numerous Hispanic-American diplomats settled in London to protect the national interests of the new republics that had formerly belonged to the Spanish empire. Simultaneously, during his four-year stay in London, Mora began to see Britain as a model of political stability, good customs, individual freedoms and economic development, which could help to regenerate Spain and build the new Hispanic-American republicanism. Following his encounter with the influential Saxon publisher Ackermann, he was able to carry out an enormous task in the publication of works in Spanish for the young Spanish-American republics. His Anglophile vision left a remarkable imprint on them, while his approach to the classical British economists came to fruition. These issues were particularly apparent in Mora’s economic publications, both his Catechism of Political Economy (1825) and in the two journals he also edited for Ackermann’s house, the Correo literario y político de Londres (1826) and the Museo universal de ciencias y artes (1825–1826).