[...] M. Pohlig, like L. Bély, emphasizes how much an actor-centred perspective on espionage must always be integrated into a more systematic approach and analysis of the communication structures allowing the actors to spy successfully for their respective masters a central argument that Alain Hugon (Caen) stresses for the Spanish empire of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in his article La monarchie catholique espagnole et l'intelligence souterraine: une affaire d'État ? (milieu XVIe - milieu XVIIe s.). For the Spanish composite monarchy of the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth century A. Hugon makes evident how the king and the king's councils were able to establish a well-working and highly centralised system of secret diplomacy and espionage despite the discontinuity of infra-structures and communication systems within and beyond this vast empire. Besides the information systems of the different councils - Council of Italy, Council of Flandres, War Council or Council of the Indies - the Spanish system relied on a well-developed postal service which linked the diverse parts of the composite monarchy to each other, not least through the family of the Thurn and Taxis and their dépendances in much of Central, Western and Southern Europe. As A. Hugon shows, successful and continuous espionage required both, an established and highly centralised state system providing regular informa- tion through more official and more secret channels and the personal relations within that could be replaced by others, equally reliable and trustworthy. [...]

Extract from the introduction to the book