A brief history of Basque literature18th century
In the 18th century Basque literature began to spread all over the Basque Country. For the first time people began to write in four dialects (Guipuzcoan, Labourdin, Biscayan and Zuberoan-Souletin), although Labourdin was on the decline. There was an increase in the number of books published and even though most of them originated initially in Lapurdi, from the second half of the century onwards the number of books written in Gipuzkoan grew. So the most important literary centre that had until then been located in the Northern Basque Country moved to the Southern Basque Country.
This change was brought about by the economic decline the Northern Basque Country was suffering at that time. Until that time sailors from the area around Donibane Lohitzune (St. Jean-de-Luz) used to fish off Newfoundland but the Treaty of Utrecht deprived them of this opportunity.
In contrast, the new literary centre developed in the Southern Basque Country for similar reasons. In this case the “Real Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas” was created for trading purposes in 1728 as was the “Sociedad económica de Amigos del País”, which was promoted by the lesser nobility of Azkoitia and the Count of Peñaflorida.