diff --git a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
index b3b367b7a..6b0426299 100644
--- a/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
+++ b/scrapy/trunk/scrapy/core/downloader/manager.py
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ class Downloader(object):
             return
 
         # Instanciate site specific handling based on info provided by spider
-        delay = getattr(spider, 'download_delay', None)
+        delay = settings.getint('DOWNLOAD_DELAY', None) or getattr(spider, 'download_delay', None)
         maxcr = getattr(spider, 'max_concurrent_requests', settings.getint('REQUESTS_PER_DOMAIN'))
         site = SiteDetails(download_delay=delay, max_concurrent_requests=maxcr)
         self.sites[domain] = site