Love and Money: Gaspar Aguilar’s «El mercader amante» and William Shakespeare’s «Merchant of Venice»

William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Gaspar Aguilar's El mercader amante are two plays most likely composed between 1596 and 1600, a time of serious economic crisis in both England and Spain.Both plays share an interest in commerce and financial issues that is evident from the title, but the links between the two plays go beyond the attention paid to merchants and economic concerns.The two plays, through a comparable distribution of character roles that involves a close link between marriage and business, and friendship and wealth, similarly address a concern with the ways in which money may affect human affections, love and friendship.Thus, against the backdrop of an ongoing Early Modern preoccupation with nascent capitalistic practices, both plays anxiously negotiate the ways in which love and friendship might be translated into the language of the new economy.