Samuel Johnson once inquired if there was one peaceful, empty dessert in the world that went unclaimed by the Spanish Empire. It was a critique about Spain doing nothing with all their territories. A tradition that continued in to post colonial status of territories. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Franco era Spain was one time where there was slight outreach to the former colonies. Hence a convention of mayors in Spain from around the old Empire. Two fun things they included on the stamp. One is the gold filled? Spanish galleon ship. The second is including Portugal. They share a peninsula and lost together big parts of empire thanks to Napoleonic trouble at home. Why not include them in the party to remember old ties?
Todays stamp is issue A352, a 1.50 Peseta stamp issued by Spain on October 10th, 1967. It was a single stamp issue celebrating the fourth congress of mayors. These congresses no longer happen. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused. Interesting and a little depressing that when my collection contains a mint stamp, it is one where being mint does nothing for the value.
I am framing todays article contrasting Spain in regards to their old Empire in contrast to the modern British Commonwealth. This should make sense to stamp collectors as being within the British one is such a big part of their stamp issuance. The fact that there is very little outreach today from Spain shows a different route. That does not mean there is no Spanish commonwealth.
For one, Spanish is the second most spoken native language in the world, second to Chinese. This from a home country that contains less than one percent of the world’s population. The Catholic Church, though not originating in Spain, owes much of it’s worldwide spread to the Spanish Empire. Remember Empire was also the time of the Church inquisition, that limited practice of other faiths in the colonies as well as at home. Compare the prevalence of the Catholic Church in the old Empire to the Anglican Church in the British. The trade routes the gallion on the stamp reminds of the new foods that entered Europe from the Spanish colonies like corn, potatoes and yes beans, and the meat and livestock introduced to the colonies like horses, cattle, and chickens.
Other long lasting interactions were less positive. The Spanish tradition of spastic shifts from right wing to left wing and back again Claudillos remains throughout the former empire. There was also the specter of otherwise far separated peoples interacting bringing fourth new diseases. So indigenous people suddenly get small pox and Spaniards come down with syphilis.
Doing little to recognize Empire saves Spain a lot of money. A budget hawk might have questioned the value of Franco importing all those mayors for a party. Budget hawks were however never a strong Spanish tradition.
Well my drink is empty and so I will wait till tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.