Mujeres y finanzas en la España del siglo XIX: prestamistas y especuladoras en las novelas de Benito Pérez Galdós

Resumen

La tendencia a asignar un papel económicamente pasivo a la mujer del XIX ha sido cuestionada en recientes estudios que demuestran que, pese a restricciones legales, las mujeres participaron en una variedad de actividades económicas. Numerosos análisis de la obra de Galdós se centran en la figura de la mujer desenfrenadamente consumista tan frecuente en su narrativa. En este artículo, sin embargo, analizaré varios personajes femeninos que participan activamente en las turbias finanzas de la sociedad representada por Galdós. De esta forma, espero contribuir al estudio de la participación de la mujer española de clase media en el mundo financiero del siglo XIX y demostrar que su vida económica no siempre se atuvo a la imagen literaria de la consumidora pasiva.

Palabras clave:

• Galdós,
• mujeres y finanzas,
• prestamistas,
• usura

Abstract

Recent scholarship has begun to challenge the tendency to assign a passive economic role to nineteenth-century women. It is now recognised that, despite legal constraints, they engaged in a variety of economic activities. Among scholars of Galdós’s work, the character of the unproductive female spendthrift, so common in his narrative, has received due attention. In this article, however, I will analyse several female characters who participate actively in the dubious finances of the society depicted by Galdós. I hope to contribute in this way to the study of the participation of middle-class women in the financial world of nineteenth-century Spain, and to show that their economic life did not always conform to the literary trope of the passive female consumer.

Keywords:

• Galdós,
• women and finances,
• female moneylenders,
• usury

Access to this article is restricted to subscribing institutions and individuals; only the abstract or an excerpt is displayed.

Please view our access options for more information.

Access options