JOVELLANOS, GASPAR MELCHIOR de. - Statesman, man of letters, economist, b. at Gijón (Spain) on 5 Feb. 1744, d. at Puerto de Vega on 27 Nov. 1811.
At Alcalá and Avila he completed his studies in law, philosophy, and literature. As “alcalde de crimen” at Seville, he composed the verse tragedy Pelayo (1772) and the sentimental comedy El delincuente honrado (1774). Having become “alcalde de casa y corte” at Madrid in 1778, he devoted himself to economics, following a moderately liberal orientation (Informe sobre el libre ejercicio de las artes, 1785). Implicated in the downfall of his financier friend Cabarrus, he was confined to Gijón, where he founded the Asturian Institute for the Sciences with the aim of advancing Spanish agriculture (Informe acerca de la ley agraria, 1795). Together with Cabarrus he returned to Madrid, appointed Minister of Justice (1797), but shortly afterward he was relegated to Majorca (1801) because of his Informe del Tribunal de la Inquisición; there he wrote on history and art until he was liberated by the French occupation (1808). He refused to accept offices from the invaders and was obliged to withdraw to Puerto de Vega. Besides his works, his correspondence with Lord Vassal Holland on the war of independence and an intimate diary have been published. The Informe de la sociedad económica de Madrid was placed on the Index as an advocate of ecclesiastical jurisdictionalism and of the tax against the higher clergy.