It is gratifying to note the continued progress by the municipality of Quito in the publication of its early cabildo records. The present volume is the thirtieth in the quadricentennial series, covering an eight-year period in the mid-seventeenth century.
Special interest should be attached to Quito in the relations of the crown and the cabildo. The reviewer believes that “the causes of the independence of the Hispanic American countries, in our view, must be deeply studied in the three centuries of colonization” (p. III) before definitive conclusions as to the real origin of this movement can be reached. Quito’s history emphasizes profound dissatisfaction with the royal policy of taxation. Outspoken and independent, the cabildo suffered as the penalty for its rebellion against the crown in 1592 deprivation of the right to elect alcaldes ordinarios. As late as 1646 it was petitioning the Council of the Indies for the restoration of the privilege. Like Lima, Quito maintained in the seventeenth century a paid agente de negocios in Madrid, whose function it was, among other things, to present memorials to the king. In a clarification of the policy of the crown toward the colonial ayuntamientos one suspects that too little attention has been given to the role of the municipal procurators in the Spanish capital. Preoccupation of the cabildo with the alcabalas and the compulsory military contributions foreshadows remotely another quiteño revolution in the eighteenth century.
The editor-transcriber is to be commended for preserving the high standards of scholarship set in the earlier volumes. Detailed indices at the end provide a useful guide to students of local history.
