PARES | Spanish Archives

Identification

Type:

Person

Preferred form:

Canga Argüelles, José (1771-1842)Other forms

Fechas de existencia:

Oviedo (Asturias, España) 1771-07-11 - Madrid (España) 1842-12-02

History:

Spanish liberal politician, financier and historian.

Son of Felipe Ignacio Canga Arguelles and Pabla Cifuentes Prada. His father was PhD in Law and Canon Law in the Universidad de Oviedo. He had studied in the University of Oviedo too, and later he obtained a PhD at the University of Zaragoza. He completed his training at the School of Mathematics of the Sociedad Económica Aragonesa. He started his administrative career becoming an officer of the Finance Ministry in Caja de Amortization de Valles. Then, he worked in different departments, such as the Secretary of State; he was appointed accountant of the Army of Valencia. When the Peninsular War started, he was in that last city, and as a consequence, he became one of the most important characters of its Junta de Gobierno. He also married Eulalia Ventades Ventades there, and they had two children: Felipe and José Canga-Argüelles Ventades.

In 1811, the Government's Junta del Reino named him staff in charge of the Secretary of State as a temporary position. Moreover, they offered him the same position in the Department of Finances and Department of the Indies. Being a member of the Finance's Commission, he was Governor of Soria and government representative in the Cortes.

In 1814, with the return of King Ferdinand VII, he was arrested and imprisoned, receiving an eight-year-sentence of exile in the castle of Peñíscola. After Riego's military uprising and the implementation of the constitutional text in 1820, Canga Argüelles resumed his political career as Minister of Finances in the "prisoners' government". He proposed different reforms of finances, and although it was not possible to accomplished them in the Trienio Liberal (Liberal Triennium), they inspired the reform of Alejandro Mon (1845). During that period, he was government representative in the Cortes, which led him to exile again when the liberal period finished. When Ferdinand VII died, he came back to Spain but not to his political career. In 1838, he joined the Royal Academy of History as a full-time academic.

Canga Argüelles showed great abilities as Minister of Finances and became one of the main personalities spreading the knowledge and ideas of science in the beginning of the 19th century. Author of important works such as "Elementos de la Ciencia de la Hacienda" and "Diccionario de Hacienda". He died at the age of 71 in the Spanish's capital.

Guerra de Independencia Española, 1808-1814

Liberal Triennium, 1820-1823

Date of the event: 1820 - 1823

Cortes de Cádiz, 1810-1813

Date of the event: 1810 - 1813