Introduction: The problem of establishing a modern inclusive system of education in Spain was not only one of large structures, but also one related to day-to-day operations in schools including didactics and methods. If liberals in Spain wanted to integrate a large section of the Spanish population into a school system, that system had to be conceived of as a mass system with an unprecedented reach within the schooling tradition of that country. In a context of financial scarcity, a rejection of pedagogical traditions, and a strong claim for more efficient techniques, the monitorial system of education from England became a new panacea for Spain. Method: With particular attention to the historiography of the reception of foreign educational models, this contribution presents historical evidence about this particular constellation of emergence of a national system of education in Spain. Results and Discussion: By analysing a sample of printed and archival historical sources concerning the early reception of this system of teaching up until 1823, this contribution shows the inescapable character monitorial instruction acquired in these years and points at the ideological factors that led to this outcome. It shows that at the very beginning of the "national" system of education, foreign elements were constitutive of the history of Spanish school system. [A bibliography is included.]