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This paper compares the economic image of seventeenth-century Spain given by foreign travellers with that offered by the arbitristas, examining the principal similarities and differences. Specifically, it analyses the following issues: the consideration of the natural resources base, the vision of national character and its relation to productive activities, and the perception of the economic situation and the causes of backwardness. The aim is to contrast the views of those who were thinking 'from the inside' about the causes of the evident decline of the country, with the free and uncensored gaze of foreign visitors, who, despite the obvious constraints and limitations, tended to focus on the most striking and different aspects they found compared to the reality of their own countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I propose analysing the concepts of discovery and conquest, especially the latter, because its use varies in legal documents, which started with the Reyes Católicos, concerning the treatment of Spaniards toward Indians. The crucial point in my analysis will concern the discussion about the nature of the concept of conquest, its relationship with that of just war and the ethics of its application by the participants in the Controversia de Valladolid (1550-51): Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda. The end point of my analysis is 1563, in the reign of Philip II, and the analysis is based on the lexical uses of these concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]