Theater in Imperial Spain: studying a commercial activity during the first globalization from the perspective of labor and economic history

The overall objective of this project is to study the Hispanic theater professionalization process during the second half of the 16th century and the early decades of the 17th century from the perspective of labor and economic history.

Furthermore, I approach this process in light of the first globalization, that is considering both Spain and its overseas colonies, as well as the interconnections between them.

This is imperative because Golden Age professional theater has been and continues to be subject of many studies, especially philological, but we have not fully understood the basis of the functioning of this new profession that emerged in the mid-sixteenth century; the reason is clear: we are dealing with a commercial activity that has not been specifically and systematically studied as such, since, to do so, it is necessary to understand its economic and labor dynamics.

In addition, professional theater has not been studied as a global phenomenon and this is also a serious problem because in the sixteenth century imperial Spain expanded into America and this fact cannot be ignored, much less if we are talking about a profession that developed almost at the same time on both sides of the ocean.

The project has four phases.

In the first one, a database will be created to collect and organize theatrical economic information; the database is intended to become an open-access tool.

During the other three phases of the project, labor and economic history methodologies will be implemented to reconstruct cases of theatrical enterprises, to analyze the labor and economic conditions of different types of comedians and, finally, to calculate approximately the costs of staging a play at the end of the sixteenth century.

Thus, this project would introduce new methodologies to theatrical studies and would inaugurate a brand new line of research founded on the economic history of an activity that is art, literature and also business.