{"product_id":"2026100008817-secondhand-penal-servitude-in-early-modern-spain","title":"Penal Servitude In Early Modern Spain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Very good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the shadows of Spain's imperial golden age lay a brutal and largely forgotten system of forced labour — one that shaped the very sinews of early modern statecraft. Penal Servitude in Early Modern Spain by Ruth Pike chronicles the lives of convicts, galley slaves, and prisoners condemned to serve the Spanish Crown, tracing the evolution of penal institutions from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Pike situates these individuals within the broader machinery of empire, arguing that punishment was not merely a matter of justice but an instrument of economic and military policy, supplying the oars of royal galleys and the labour of mercury mines with condemned men. The work draws on rich archival sources to reconstruct the human experience of incarceration and forced toil in a society simultaneously projecting power across continents and managing disorder at home.\n\nPike writes with the precision of a seasoned historian and the sensitivity of a social chronicler, illuminating how class, ethnicity, and crime intersected within Spanish penal practice. The study raises penetrating questions about the relationship between sovereign power and human expendability — questions that resonate far beyond the Iberian Peninsula. For scholars of early modern Europe, imperial history, and the history of crime and punishment, this is an indispensable work that refuses to let the condemned remain nameless and forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336811651291,"sku":"2026100008817-SECONDHAND","price":20.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/49d86b94-8bba-484f-873e-ceea6320b6ce.png?v=1789958420","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026100008817-secondhand-penal-servitude-in-early-modern-spain","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}