Married to the Portuguese Bárbara de Braganza, Ferdinand VI (1746-1759) inaugurated a period of apparent pacifism after the turbulent reign of his father. However, the policy developed, especially under the influence of the Marquis of Ensenada and Don José de Carvajal, was directed towards deep reforms that should change the Spanish socioeconomic situation, once the Italian pretensions and the excessive French influence.
With a government program based on peace abroad and reformist measures at home, a series of improvements were promoted to respond to the Spanish-English problems related to America, reforming the Castilian tax system (single tax) and with the proposal for a plan to modernize the Navy, among other measures.
With the change of reign, there was also a renewal in the high magistracies of the administration, appearing the opposition between two groups, opposed to each other:Biscayans, made up of natives or descendants of Basque and Navarrese families linked to the royal administration (the Arizaga and the Quadra, among others); and the Spanish or golillas party, which has risen since 1746, and is characterized by the use of this garment as a badge by the robed ministers. This group was nourished by the ranks of the lower and middle nobility, belonging to the same figures such as:Zenón de Somodevilla, Carvajal, Rávago and Farinelli, among others.
International Situation
In the international order, the War of Succession in Austria ended. With the Peace Treaty of Aachen (1748), Don Felipe de Borbón would maintain the dukedoms of Parma and Plasencia and the small Principality of Guastalla in Italy, in addition to certifying American trade under Spanish rule. The English colonial privileges as well as Gibraltar and Menorca were left out of the pacts. Spain, more diplomatically isolated abroad, was since then focused on her internal affairs. With regard to Portugal, the border problems in America were resolved (Boundary Treaty, 1750) and the unresolved issues in Aachen were settled with England, by means of the Compensation Treaty (1750). In the area of the Mediterranean, the Treaty of Aranjuez (June 14, 1752) was agreed by which Spain, Austria, Sardinia, in addition to the Duke of Parma and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, sealed a defensive alliance. In order to avoid the Barbary Corsican, the agreements between Algiers and Hamburg (1752) and between Denmark and the North African Muslims (1753), endorsed in the Friendship and Trade Agreement signed in The Hague (1757) and between Denmark and the Muslims, were hindered. North Africans (1753), endorsed in the Friendship and Trade Agreement signed in The Hague (1757). In 1752 negotiations with Benedict XIV concluded in the Concordat with the Holy See (1753). Finally, Spanish neutrality was maintained after the start of the Seven Years' War between France and England (1756-1763). In the interior, the reformist policy of Ensenada allowed:the strengthening of the fleet (reorganization of the Cádiz arsenal, development of those of El Ferrol and Cartagena) and the unique contribution, a new tax for whose application it had to be elaborated, between 1749 and 1756, the so-called Cadastre of Ensenada. Three years later, the Royal Board of Single Contribution ordered a Neighborhood to be made based on the data of the Cadastre (1759), achieving a fundamental document for knowing the population of the Crown, which allowed updating the population count of 1591 - commissioned by Philip II– and that of the imperfect Neighborhood of Campoflorido of 1717.