The aim of this paper is to throw light on a little known author who argued decidedly in favour of free trade, following the line established by Flórez Estrada and Canga Argüelles, but with much more radical proposals. Román Martínez de Montaos was an economist with a very ample trajectory, both intellectual and as an individual, whose writings considered all types of economic and budgetary questions. In his work Incompatibilidad de la Constitución española con el sistema de contribuciones indirectas que rige&, a fundamental text in the fiscal reforms of the Cortes de Cádiz, he included amongst its no fewer than sixteen chapters, an extremely wide-ranging plan to reform both customs duties and the tariff system on the basis of radical liberal thinking.

Key words: free trade, prohibition, protectionism, customs, tariff system.
JEL classification: N43.