El fracaso del proyecto de ley de beneficios extraordinarios de Santiago Alba en 1916: Una lectura política1

This article deals with two important matters of the making of fiscal policy during the Spanish Restoration: the central position of the Parliament in the making of fiscal policy, and the relations between the parliamentary parties and the pressure groups. In the year 1916, the Spanish Chancellor of the Exchequer, the liberal Santiago Alba, tried to incorporate the War Profits Tax to the Spanish tax system, adopted by the majority of the countries at the First World War and by some neutral countries. The bill failed in the Parliament because of the obstruction of a large group of MPs leaded by the Lliga Regionalista, a Catalonian nationalist party. It is said by some historians that the failure of Alba's bill was due to the strength and the efficiency of the pressure groups and by the subordination, of the parliamentary parties of their interests. This article disagrees with this thesis. It tries to prove that the attitude of the Lliga Regionalista was instigated by strictly political reasons. Its objetive was to weaken the political system of Spanish Restoration. The Lliga considered that this political system was an obstacle for the development of the Catalonian home rule. In its struggle against Santiago Alba, the Lliga was supported by several MPs. They fought the bill in defence of the predominant economic interests in their electoral districts, withouth the support of their parties.