As part of a general effort to reestablish effective control over its American colonies, during the second half of the eighteenth century the Spanish crown sought to integrate systematically both Americans and persons experienced in American affairs into government positions in Spain. A royal order of February 21, 1776 requested the Council of Castile to consider Americans for Spanish ecclesiastical and judicial positions.1 The abortive attempt to establish a College of American Nobles in Granada in 1792 similarly called for bringing Americans to Spain, first to educate them and then to place them in civil, military, and ecclesiastical offices in Spain and the Indies.2 Neither effort succeeded. The first failed partly because Americans lacked interest, and the second because financial exigencies prevented the opening of the college. The crown, however, did incorporate men with colonial experience into the highest offices of administration for the Indies.3 The appointments as Secretary of State for the Indies of Baylio Fray Julián de Arriaga after his brief service in Venezuela, José de Gálvez after his visitation in New Spain, and the Marqués de Bajamar following service on the audiencias of Charcas and Lima exemplify this trend. Although less well-known, the Council of the Indies became a stronghold of men with American experience from the mid-1770s until 1808.
Discussions treating the Council of the Indies in the eighteenth century emphasize the tribunal’s weakness. Moreover, they stress that by 1790 it had entered a final period of decay.4 Examining the men appointed to the Council, however, opens new perspectives. Unheralded decisions in 1773 and 1776 initiated a dramatic alteration of the Council’s personnel and at last made it a repository of men experienced in American affairs.5 Staffed with an unparalleled number of colonial service veterans, the Council’s store of information and advice expanded. The evidence suggests forcefully that, rather than declining, the Council’s importance and prestige enjoyed a renaissance in the final decades of Old Regime Spain.
The Council of the Indies emerged from the War of the Spanish Succession reduced in authority and size. From its founding in 1524 until the early eighteenth century, the Council had been the supreme institution for American affairs.6 Its competence had encompassed judicial, financial, military, ecclesiastical, commercial, and general administrative matters as well as the control of patronage for New World positions. Over time, of course, the Council’s effective authority had varied widely. In broad terms the tribunal enjoyed its greatest power during the sixteenth century while decay characterized it during the seventeenth century. Philip V administered the coup de grace when he created a Secretary of State for the Indies in 1714. This action reduced the Council’s responsibilities to judicial matters and patronage over judicial and ecclesiastical positions. Commensurate with its diminished authority, the Council also found its size reduced. By royal decree of January 20, 1717 the tribunal retained only ten ministers: six ministros togados, two ministros de capa y espada, and two fiscales.7
Both before and after 1717 ministros togados formed the Council’s backbone.8 Councilors with university legal training (letrados), ministros togados almost without exception had filled one or more previous letrado positions. In contrast, ministros de capa y espada had no common university experience or legal training. Their qualifications for office varied widely, and most could anticipate no future advancement. Within the Council ministros de capa y espada enjoyed the same salary and prerogatives as their letrado colleagues. As their appointments specified, however, they were prohibited from deliberating or voting in judicial cases.9 The two fiscales (crown attorneys) divided responsibilities for New Spain and Peru. Invariably trained in the law, fiscales often enjoyed promotion to the rank of ministro togado.10 All Council members were eligible for appointment to the Cámara, a smaller body specifically charged with overseeing the tribunal’s patronage responsibilities. Indeed the decree that reestablished the Cámara in 1721 authorized the appointment of both letrados and ministros de capa y espada.11
Although increased business had prompted expansion of the Council’s membership to eight ministros togados and four ministros de capa y espada in 1760,12 the real reinvigoration began in 1773 when a royal decree of July 29 granted it equality with the Council of Castile.13 “Equality” meant that the Council of the Indies was to be de término, and its ministers would enjoy the same “salaries, prerogatives, and exemptions” as did Councilors of Castile. In addition the number of ministros togados was increased from eight to ten. For the first time the Council capped a regular line of promotion (ascenso). Its ministers could advance no further within the judicial bureaucracy, and they could no longer become Councilors of Castile.
This decree and subsequent emphasis upon appointing men learned in American matters to the Council provided the institutional mechanism for upgrading colonial service. Now peninsular letrados could spend their early career in America and return to Spain at the highest rank. After 1773 the Council developed into an impressive reservoir of American expertise. With the termination of separate Secretaries of State for the Indies, from 1790 until 1808 the Council remained an unparalleled and stable source for advice and information on American questions.
Examining appointments to the Council of the Indies prior to 1773 facilitates an appreciation of the change initiated by the tribunal’s elevation to de término rank. Traditionally the high judicial bureaucracy of Spain and its empire had two parallel branches. The Spanish branch included several audiencias, chancellories in Valladolid and Granada, and councils of varying rank. The Council of Castile or Royal Council sat at the apex. The Council of the Indies occupied a position on the second tier and below were the remaining councils and other courts. Councilors of Castile had often served in several previous posts. The circuitous advancement could encompass positions in an audiencia, a chancellory, the Council of Castile’s criminal court (sala de alcaldes de casa y corte), and two lower councils before reaching the Council of Castile itself.14
Analogous to the peninsular ascenso was the separate colonial path of advancement. Beginning their service in minor tribunals such as Santo Domingo or Panama, audiencia ministers could advance, for example, to Guadalajara or Charcas, and ultimately to the viceregal courts of Mexico or Lima.15 In these latter tribunals, however, upward mobility generally ceased. Progression from an American court directly to the Council of the Indies was exceedingly rare. Until the eighteenth century few men with New World audiencia service crossed the Atlantic to serve on Spanish courts or councils. Thus the Council of the Indies was traditionally part of the ascenso for the Spanish rather than the American branch of the royal judicial bureaucracy.
Lists of men appointed to the Council from 1524 to 1773 confirm its place in the Spanish ascenso and indicate the limited movement to it from the American audiencias. During Habsburg rule, 217 letrados received appointments to the council.16 Roughly one-third of these subsequently advanced to the Council of Castile.17 The men promoted accounted for slightly over one-fifth of the ministers named to the Royal Council.18 Limiting the analysis to the reigns of Philip III, Philip IV, and Charles II, the number who advanced rises to just over one quarter of the appointees. Indeed, during this century the Council of the Indies was the most important tribunal in providing ministers for the Council of Castile.19
During the Habsburg years only eight men advanced directly from an American audiencia to the Council of the Indies, and seven of these received their promotions between 1589 and 1613.20 For the remainder of the seventeenth century, a single oidor of the Audiencia of Mexico and interim president of the Audiencia of Guatemala moved directly from an Indies’ court to the Council.21 Juan de Solórzano’s difficulty in returning to Spain highlights the problems men serving in the New World faced.22 And even a jurist of Solórzano’s stature received an appointment to the Council of Hacienda before rising to the more prestigious Council of the Indies.23
The situation changed somewhat after 1700. Establishment of a Secretary of State for the Indies and the associated reduction in the Council’s duties and size were partly responsible. From 1701 to 1750 the Council of the Indies provided a lower percentage of the Royal Council’s appointees than it had during the seventeenth century. Only nine men, roughly one minister in six, advanced during this half-century.24 At the same time six men with American experience—four on audiencias, one as a visitor general to New Spain, and one as superintendent general of the mines and mercury of Huancavelica—moved directly to the Council. In addition seven men with American service but intervening appointments on Spanish tribunals and four members of the House of Trade were named. In the first half-century of Bourbon rule it became common for Council membership to comprise at least some ministers with personal knowledge of the Indies. Nonetheless, most ministros togados still lacked experience in the colonies.
In 1750 a royal decree ordered American viceroys to recommend from their kingdoms men meriting promotion to the Council.25 Despite this attempt to incorporate American experience, appointments from 1751 until the declaration of equality in 1773 merely continued the pattern evident since the century began. Six of the twenty-two ministers named had served in the Indies. Five old hands returned to Spain with Council appointments; the sixth, Pedro de León y Escandón, had held an appointment as oidor in the Chancellory of Valladolid for nearly a decade after a short term as Protector of the Indians in Lima.26 Reinforced by these appointments, from 1750 to 1773 the number of serving letrado ministers who had American experience varied between two and four.
While the Council was maintaining a modest group of colonial veterans, the advancement of its letrados to the Council of Castile resumed after a twelve-year lapse. From 1761 to 1772 Charles III promoted eight ministers to the senior tribunal. After witnessing four of these moves between 1766 and December, 1769, the President of the Council, Juan Pizarro de Aragón, Marqués de San Juan de Piedras Albas, expressed his misgivings. Having begun his association with the Council as a ministro de capa y espada in 1728,27 he reached the presidency thirty-five years later and held the position until his death in mid-January, 1771.28 During more than three decades on the court he had seen only four men moved to the Council of Castile. Then in 1761 the parade began. Pizarro’s long tenure enabled him to perceive the disruption caused by the promotions as well as the growing need for more ministers to handle the Council’s increasing business. Scarcely a year before his death he recommended to Charles III that the court should be declared de término and that its letrado councilors be increased from eight to ten.29
Charles took no immediate action and, with the president’s death, the suggestions lay dormant for almost two years until the Secretary of the Indies, Baylio Fray Julián de Arriaga, again brought them to his attention.30 In response the King ordered the Duque de Alba, Grand Chancellor of the Indies and the Council’s executive head since the death of Pizarro, to render an opinion.31 Despite his ill health Alba complied. His own support ran only six brief pages, but he also submitted a lengthier argument by the Council.32
The nine councilors and two fiscales who signed the representation of February 20, 1773, included an unusually high number of men with American experience. One capa y espada member was Peruvian by birth, while another had spent over two decades in Mexico.33 Four ministros togados had long and distinguished American service, three on audiencias of New Spain for over two decades and another, José de Gálvez, as visitor general from 1765 to 1771.34 Presumably these men, all seasoned colonial veterans, felt their recommendations more authoritative than those made by ministers without comparable experience. Moreover, they undoubtedly chafed at knowing that their American experience virtually condemned them to second-class salary, prerogatives, and status. Although eight men of the nineteen named to the Council of the Indies between 1752 and 1770 advanced to the Council of Castile, only one of these had previously held a colonial position, and that for scarcely five years.35 In other words, after mid-century ministers with American experience were forced to watch colleagues without special competence in colonial affairs move ahead professionally for what appeared to be precisely their lack of colonial service. Rewarding American expertise properly through a declaration of equality with the Council of Castile presented a better solution. Furthermore, if American service became the principal requirement for appointment, the increased experience would raise the Council’s value to the King.
The Council began with an historical perspective as it examined its plight.36 From its foundation it had enjoyed equal authority and jurisdiction with the Council of Castile in governmental and judicial matters. Philip II had strongly asserted the Council’s responsibility over American affairs. Despite the Secretary of State for the Indies’ assumption of authority over many matters previously reserved to it, the Council did not lack importance in 1773. Frequently the Secretary requested its opinions.
To emphasize the Council’s original authority, the ministers indicated that their predecessors had once enjoyed salaries and perquisites even greater than those of the Councilors of Castile. Apparently referring to the sixteenth century, they noted that movement from the Council of the Indies to its Castilian counterpart had rarely occurred because the Crown had considered the tribunal for America so valuable. The turning point had come when Councilors of Castile began to enjoy higher salaries and “lucrative commissions.” The ministers stated that the recent frequent movement (they studiously refrained from calling it “promotion”) from their Council to the Council of Castile was detrimental to the King’s best interest. In consequence, their own tribunal appeared de tránsito, y no de término. Anticipating advancement, ministers did not apply themselves zealously to the business of the Indies. Of course no one could blame them for seeking transfer to a post with more salary, rich commissions, and the promise of better support for their widows. These remunerative issues prompted soliciting an appointment to the Council of Castile. Since the Council of the Indies was “equally supreme,” a move brought negligible honorific gain.
The business of the Indies demanded ministers with knowledge beyond routine civil jurisprudence. Imperial commerce involved not only business contracts, but also problems of prizes, commissions, and reprisals in time of war. Foreign colonies in the Americas and treaties concerning them posed serious difficulties. The Crown’s extensive ecclesiastical patronage in the Indies demanded knowledge not to be gained from service in peninsular tribunals. Moreover, a year or two on the Council did not provide the requisite information for understanding these problems. Ministers would obtain this knowledge only if assured that they would not be moved to another tribunal.
To terminate the weakness outlined, the Council proposed specific remedies. Charles II should declare the Council de término and explicitly prohibit its members from moving to the Council of Castile unless there were a special reason for a transfer. The salary the ministers received and the benefits available to their widows should equal those that Councilors of Castile received. In light of its heavy workload, the Council further recommended increasing the number of its letrado judges to ten and annually establishing separate chambers for justice and administration (gobierno).
Reinforced by the Duque de Alba’s strong endorsement and Arriaga’s support, the Council’s argument bore fruit.37 Despite the additional expense of over 350,000 reales de vellón a year, on July 29, 1773, Charles III decreed the equality the ministers had sought.38 For the gratified men a new day had come.39
Making the 1773 decree effective required removing members of the Council of the Indies from the candidates eligible for the Royal Council. Arriaga passed the decree to Secretary of Grace and Justice Manuel de Roda on August 2, 1773, with a note to ensure that the Cámara of Castile excluded ministers from the Council of the Indies from its recommendations (consultas).40 Four days later Roda informed the Conde de Aranda, President of the Council, of the royal wishes.41 Henceforth letrados in peninsular tribunals competed only among themselves for posts on the Royal Council. Any joy this change evoked, however, must have evaporated as evidence grew that they would generally be excluded from the increased benefits Councilors of the Indies enjoyed.
The Councilors’ argument for equality had emphasized the importance of ministers experienced in American affairs. In stressing the benefits produced by prolonged tenure, however, they neglected to note that simply naming colonial veterans would strengthen the tribunal. The July decree omitted prior American experience as an explicit condition for appointment. Nonetheless, pretendientes (office-seekers) soon found that such service was almost mandatory for gaining even consideration.
The Cámara’s proposals for filling the two newly created positions revealed the new emphasis. In two recommendations of September 6, 1773, the Cámara unanimously listed in first place Manuel Lanz de Casafonda, its fiscal for the affairs of New Spain since 1766, and José Pablo de Agüero, formerly fiscal of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo for twenty-two years and fiscal of the House of Trade since 1764. The four other men proposed boasted extensive service in American courts.42 Agüero’s appointment initiated old hands’ regular advancement to the Council.43
Definitive separation of the American and Spanish ascensos appeared in early 1776. As part of a widespread effort to improve justice and administration for the Indies, Charles III increased the Council’s ministros togados to fourteen.44 Almost simultaneously he added a regent to each American audiencia.45 By creating the regent as the undisputed senior letrado on each court, Charles had paved the way for orderly progression from the audiencias to the Council. The actions of 1773 and 1776 both expanded and smoothed the American ascenso. While newly appointed regents inaugurated their posts, moreover, the Crown explicitly proclaimed the principle of advancement from American audiencia to the Council.
The four new posts created in 1776 fell to men practiced in colonial affairs. One Charles granted without the advice of the Cámara to José Antonio de Areche, fiscal of the Audiencia of Mexico and newly named visitor general of Peru.46 The other three appointments went to men who resided in Spain but had special knowledge of America. Jacobo Andrés de Huerta had served nearly two decades in Guatemala before joining the audiencia in Barcelona.47 Both Juan de Mérida and Manuel Romero were oidores of the House of Trade with Romero also having spent a decade in New Granada as legal advisor (asesor) to the viceroy.48 Significantly the three consultas included only men knowledgeable in colonial matters; just two of the twelve men listed had not served personally in the Indies.49
The February 1776 decree had explicitly ordered the Cámara of the Indies to propose ministers experienced in American affairs for the new positions.50 While this left little room for misinterpretation, the new direction was still sufficiently novel to move the Cámara to request a final clarification. When the next regular vacancy occurred, it inquired whether the criterion of experience in colonial affairs still applied or whether ministers lacking American service could be proposed.51 The royal response both answered the question and set the standard for subsequent nominations. The Cámara could accept other applications, “but was always to give special consideration to those [ministers] who had contracted their merit in the audiencias of those dominions and that of the [House of] Trade.”52
The appointments made in 1776 seem to have convinced most letrados in Spanish tribunals that soliciting an appointment to the Council of the Indies was futile. Nonetheless, upon occasion persistent applicants reached the consulta. A 1777 recommendation included two men without American experience.53 Neither obtained the appointment. Subsequent consultas reveal the virtual disappearance of pretendientes without service in the Indies. All five nominees for an opening in 1783 had American experience.54 Three years later a consulta listed four regents, one oidor on the House of Trade who had previously served in the audiencias of Charcas and Lima, and only one aspirant, an oidor of the Chancellory of Granada, without American service.65 The story was much the same in 1804 when the Cámara’s candidates included five regents, two fiscales, and one oidor from American audiencias.56 The change since 1760 could scarcely have been greater. In that year only two of twenty-one pretendientes had any personal experience in America while two others had served on the House of Trade.57
A comparison of appointees before and after the decree of equality reveals the importance of the 1773 and 1776 decisions.58 After the decree the percentage of appointees with American service more than tripled. The number of old hands rose from six of twenty-two (twenty-seven percent) between 1752 and 1773 to thirty-nine of forty-six (eighty-five percent) from the issuance of the 1773 decree to 1808. Three other appointees had served on the House of Trade and thus met the criteria set forth in the 1776 royal order.59 In addition, Gaspar Soler y Ruiz had been governor of the Almadén mercury mines. His experience in overseeing the vital flow of mercury to the expanding Mexican silver mines indubitably gave him special knowledge useful to the Council.60 Thus only seven percent of the appointees after the 1773 decree (three of forty-six) had no substantial contact with American affairs before joining the Council.61 This presents a striking contrast with the sixty-four percent lacking such experience between 1752 and 1773.
The number and percentage of men with American experience named from 1773 to 1808 represented impressive advances over earlier conditions and demonstrated the Crown’s ability to carry out the reform effectively. Equally important, however, was the extent and breadth of experience that the new appointees brought to the Council. Thirty-eight of the thirty-nine men with personal knowledge of the Indies had served on American audiencias; in contrast, only four of the six colonial veterans named from 1752 to 1773 had held audiencia appointments.62 Together the appointees after 1773 had served in every American audiencia as well as in the House of Trade. Twenty-four (sixty-three percent) had served in New Spain, seventeen exclusively. The preponderance of ministers drawn from its five courts reflected the northern viceroyalty’s economic and strategic preeminence in the late eighteenth century.
In addition to representing the entire empire geographically, the ministers named from 1773 to 1808 averaged nineteen years of American service; for the twenty men named from 1788 to 1808 the average rose to twenty-three years. Only four colonial veterans named after 1773 counted less than ten years’ experience, while twenty-eight had over fifteen and eleven boasted over twenty-five years of experience. Three of the six veterans named between 1752 and 1773, on the other hand, had under a decade of New World service.
The extent of American experience most sharply separates pre- and post-1773 appointees to the Council, but is not the only difference. Educational background, too, presents a definite contrast.63 While men affiliated with the University of Salamanca constituted the leading group from 1752 to 1773, after the latter date this venerable institution’s alumni shared first place with men from the universities of Granada, Valladolid, and Alcalá. The burst of appointments to University of Granada alumni was the most notable change from the earlier period. Now Granada joined the three classic universities with prestigious colegios mayores—Salamanca, Valladolid, and Alcalá.
After 1773 the six colegios mayores produced a smaller percentage of Council appointees as efforts reforming the colegios and weakening their alumni’s grip on royal patronage became effective.64 The colegiales’ position had not been particularly strong on the Council of the Indies after mid-century, however, and their appointments declined only from eight (thirty-six percent) to seven (twenty-seven percent) in the years 1773-1790. The six colegios mayores had furnished fifty-four percent of the Council’s letrado appointees between 1517 and 1700 and never during the five Habsburg reigns did the percentage fall below forty-five. This suggests that the low figures after 1750 represent a change in the recruitment pattern for the entire Spanish judicial bureaucracy probably begun before mid-century.65
The recurrent promotion of regents contrasts starkly with earlier haphazard and occasional advancements granted audiencia ministers. The regency became the major institutional link between American service and the Council and regents advanced regularly beginning in 1783. José García de León y Pizarro, a former fiscal of Seville’s Audiencia de los Grados who in 1776 inaugurated the regency in Quito, initiated eighteen such promotions from 1783 to 1808.66 Together the regents comprised an absolute majority (sixty percent) of the thirty ministers named during these years. The variety of posts the other twelve appointees had held previously highlights the regency’s role as a stepping stone. Three of the twelve had no American experience and no more than three came from the same position, oidor of the House of Trade. Since no ascenso existed within their rank, regents joined the Council from subordinate as well as viceregal tribunals. Seven came from the audiencias of New Spain with only distant Manila failing to provide one. Among South America’s eight tribunals, only Caracas and Charcas did not have regents who advanced to the Council by 1808. Excluding the three regents sent from Spanish tribunals in 1776 who quickly returned to Spain, the average promoted regent had served twenty-three years in America. Moreover, again excluding García de León y Pizarro, Juan Francisco Gutiérrez de Piñeres, and Melchor Jacot Ortiz Rojano, the regents almost uniformly had served in three different courts.67
The careers of Vicente de Herrera y Rivero and Juan de Villalengua y Marfil illustrate the broad experience that promoted regents had often gained. Herrera began his career as fiscal of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo in 1764. Advancing to the Audiencia of Mexico as an alcalde del crimen in 1770, three years later he became an oidor. In 1776 Charles III selected Herrera to initiate the regency in Guatemala; successful service prompted his return to Mexico as regent in 1782. By this time he wore the cross of the Order of Charles III. After twenty-two years of American service, his petitioning bore fruit and he received an appointment as ministro togado. Herrera obtained one final coveted reward, a title of Castile granted in 1790, before his death in early 1794 ended his efforts to reach the Cámara.68 Similar promotion was possible from South America as Villalengua’s career shows. Having begun his career in 1773 as Protector of the Indians in the Audiencia of Quito, Villalengua routinely became the court’s fiscal del crimen when the protectorship was abolished in 1776. Following a five-year stint as fiscal del crimen in the viceregal Audiencia of Lima, in 1783 he returned to Quito as regent. Subsequently he moved to Guatemala as regent, received honors of the Council of the Indies, and gained the cross of Charles III. After twenty-one years of American service, Villalengua moved to the Council in 1794.69
As a group, the regents promoted to the Council were the flower of the American judiciary. Their individual experience in American affairs almost uniformly spanned at least twenty years and three courts. In addition, most regents boasted membership in the Order of Charles III before reaching the Council.70 The only non-regent appointees after 1783 who were caballeros were Jorge Escobedo who was named to the Council while visitor general in Peru, Ramón de Posada y Soto, long-time fiscal for the royal exchequer in New Spain, and the Conde de Torre Múzquiz who had served as an alcalde de casa y corte as well as an oidor in the Audiencia of Guadalajara. By making the Council the pinnacle of an effective American ascenso, the Crown succeeded in systematically drawing into the tribunal’s ranks ministers whose extensive American experience and meritorious service had already earned them recognition, previous promotions and receipt of the cross of Charles III. Never before had the Council contained such an illustrious group of veteran civil servants.
In one final way the ministers named after the 1773 decree fulfilled the Crown’s expectations. As the Councilors had argued, de término status provided greater stability among the tribunal’s personnel. For the thirty ministers appointed from 1773 to 1798 who assumed their posts, the average tenure was fifteen years. Since at least five of these appointees were still serving in 1808, the average tenure might well have been longer had the French invasion not intervened. In any case, the fifteen-year figure substantially exceeded the eight-year average for appointees named from 1752 to 1773. The changes of the mid-1770s had made experience and continuity the Council’s hallmarks.
Examining the characteristics of appointees over time reveals changes in appointment practices. Death, promotion to the Council of Castile, and an occasional refusal to serve, however, mean that the men seated on the Council did not always mirror these changes. To ascertain the amount of American experience actually represented, it is useful to analyze the tribunal’s composition at selected dates.
At the end of 1755 the Council counted only three letrados with American experience. All had served only in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Gerónimo de Sola y Fuente had spent over a decade as general superintendent for the Huancavelica mercury mines, while León y Escandón had been Protector of the Indians for the Audiencia of Lima.71 Joaquín Vázquez de Agüero joined the Council from the sala de alcaldes de casa y corte, but subsequently had been sent to the provinces of the Río de la Plata on commission.72 Except for a fiscal who had previously been the crown attorney for the Audiencia of Valencia and a judge whose appointment had rewarded his father-in-law’s services, the other letrados had proceeded from the sala de alcaldes de casa y corte (five) and the House of Trade (two).73 Of the twelve letrados, five had served less than five years.74 Three of these five would move to the Council of Castile.75
The 1773 decree of equality and the subsequent emphasis upon naming ministers with American experience changed the situation markedly by 1775. Eight of the twelve letrados now could boast pre-appointment service in the colonies.76 Moreover, the range of their experience had expanded as they had served in the audiencia districts of Manila, Santo Domingo, Guatemala, Mexico, Charcas, and Lima, as well as the House of Trade. Their number included seven former audiencia ministers and the former visitor Gálvez.
Twenty years later regents were regularly gaining promotion and American experience on the Council had expanded still further. At the end of 1795 six regents held appointments to the Council, although one, José Antonio de Urízar, was obliged to continue serving in Santo Domingo until 1799.77 In addition, eight of the Council’s other twelve letrados were colonial veterans.78 Excluding Urízar, the old hands had served in eight of the thirteen audiencia districts for an average of seventeen years. Although their average service was slightly less than that of their predecessors in 1775, the ministers serving in 1795 had broader geographical experience and comprised a higher percentage of the Council’s letrados. Moreover, the stability sought in 1773 had been realized. In 1795 five ministers had served fifteen years or longer and the average length of service was eleven years.79 Only two men had served less than five years.80
Examining Council appointments before and after the decree of July 29, 1773 reveals a successful reform. The Crown had realized its objectives of providing the Council with stable personnel and better knowledge of American affairs. The appointment policy begun in 1773 continued until 1808, suggesting that its results pleased both Charles III and Charles IV and their advisors. Although Charles IV and his powerful favorite Manuel Godoy revived supernumerary letrado appointments,81 at least for the Council of the Indies they prevented the abuse of patronage that such namings had traditionally implied. The Council’s three supernumeraries were as qualified as most regular (número) appointees.82 There is no reason to suspect that the Council’s personnel declined in quality under Charles IV. Any crisis of administration that developed during his reign was forced upon the Council rather than emanating from it.
In part because of the Council members’ increased experience, one can suggest that the tribunal enjoyed a renaissance in importance, particularly during the reign of Charles IV. The Council remained the sole government institution devoted exclusively to American affairs following the suppression of the House of Trade and division of colonial affairs among five Spanish Secretaries of State in 1790. Consequently the tribunal’s activities expanded. Frequently administrative matters vied for attention with judicial cases. Indeed, ministro togado José Pablo Valiente y Bravo claimed in 1809 that the Council alone had prevented administrative anarchy in the Indies since the termination of a single Secretariat of State for the Indies in 1787.83 Not only were its judges and fiscales often colonial veterans, but also its governor from 1792 to 1808 had served in the Indies for fiteen years. The Marqués de Bajamar’s return to the Council as governor placed the body under a seasoned politician whose recommendations carried authority.84
Staffing the Council with colonial veterans coincided with the Crown’s most vigorous efforts to reassert control over the Indies. Presumably the new ministers could appreciate more realistically than their predecessors the benefits the Crown could obtain from her possessions. Additionally, they would better understand the obstacles limiting royal authority and personally know colonists and officials who might subvert royal intentions. Of course one could reverse the perspective and suggest that precisely because of their extensive American experience the ministers would return to Spain representing colonial rather than royal interests. The available evidence, however, indicates that few veterans advanced after 1773 had created the family ties frequently attributed to audiencia members.85 Ministers with such links could choose not to seek promotion to the Council.86 Or, if named, they could refuse appointment as did the regent of Chile, Fernando Márquez de la Plata, son-in-law of the Santiago magnate the Marqués de Villa Palma.87
The 1773 decree ultimately converted the Council of the Indies to the apex of an imperial bureaucracy that routinely integrated men with American service into its highest ranks. Examining the men named from the tribunal’s establishment until 1808 emphasizes the singularity of the post-decree appointees. Never before were old hands so numerous. Generally headed by a governor with American experience, for over three decades these ministers were in a position to make their special knowledge known. Nonetheless, it would be misleading to suggest at this point that the Council’s decisions reflected a bloc vote of colonial veterans. Divided opinion on the Council probably originated partly from ministers’ previous contact in the colonies. The Conde de Tepa’s bitterness was strong against José de Gálvez, whom he had known in New Spain.88 Determining, for example, whether the six ministers serving in 1800 whose careers had overlapped in New Spain cooperated or disputed awaits an analysis of their votes on consultas. Future investigation alone will reveal whether the veterans of the Indies brought significant changes to the tribunal’s recommendations and decisions.
Few historians have noted the prominence of colonial veterans on the Council during the late colonial period. General discussions assert that not only was the Council of slight importance throughout Bourbon rule but that after 1790 it sank to new depths of insignificance. To the present, however, no scholar has systematically examined the Council’s place in the formation of policy for the New World during the Bourbon period. The Crown’s concern after 1773 to recruit ministers knowledgeable in American affairs, the Council’s elevation to equality with that of Castile, and the increase in its authorized councilors from a paltry six in 1750 to fourteen in 1776 suggest that such a study would reveal that, rather than declining, the Council’s importance was increasing as the colonial era drew to a close.
Richard Konetzke, ed., Colección de documentos para la historia de la formación social de Hispanoamérica 1493-1810, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1953-1962), III, Part I, document 234.
Royal cédula, Madrid, January 15, 1792. Published in the Mercurio peruano (Lima), tomo V, nos. 172—173 (August 26 and 30, 1792), 270-284.
The almost complete absence of Americans from consultas for positions in Spain after 1776 is a good indication of creoles’ lack of desire to serve in peninsular courts.
For example, see Gildas Bernard, Le secrétariat d’état et le conseil espagnol des Indes (1700-1808) (Geneva, 1972), pp. 20-21; J. H. Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire (New York, 1966), p. 320; Richard Konetzke, América latina: La época colonial, trans. Pedro Scaron (Madrid, 1972), p. 109; and C. H. Haring, The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1947), p. 117.
Critics had advocated staffing the Council with such men since the sixteenth century. Ernesto Schäfer, El consejo real y supremo de las Indias, 2 vols. (Seville, 1935-1947), I, 133, 134, n.2, 247, n.2.
Schäfer, El consejo, I, is the classic examination of the Council for the Habsburg period. A convenient summary of the Council’s activities and fortunes can be found in Haring, Spanish Empire, pp. 102-118.
Report by Phelipe de Altolaguirre, Madrid, March 4, 1760, Archivo General de Indias, Seville (hereafter cited as AGI), Indiferente General, leg. 885.
I employ “ministers” as an inclusive term referring to councilors and fiscales of a Spanish council or judges and fiscales of a colonial audiencia. To avoid confusion, such officials as José de Gálvez are referred to as Secretary of State for the Indies rather than “minister.”
See Schäfer, El consejo, I, Appendix II for councilors’ appointments from 1524 to 1700. Bernard, Le secrétariat, Appendix II, part III provides a generally accurate list from 1700 to 1808.
For examples, see title (título) of Estevan Joseph de Abaría, Buen Retiro, July 15, 1738, Archivo General de Simancas, Simancas (hereafter cited as AGS), Sección XXIII, Dirección General del Tesoro (hereafter XXIII), Inventario 13, leg. 9, documento 490 (hereafter in the following form: 13-9-490), and title of the Marqués de Gamoneda, Buen Retiro, December 20, 1759, ibid., 13-8-417.
See Schafer, El consejo, I, Appendix III and Bernard, Le secrétariat, Appendix II, Part IV.
Summary of the organization of the Cámara written following the death of Gonzalo de Machado in 1732, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 870A.
Royal decree, March 13, 1760, ibid., leg. 870B, expediente Calderón Enríquez.
Royal decree to the Duque de Alba, San Ildefonso, July 29, 1773, ibid., leg. 824.
Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter cited as AHN), Sección de Consejos Suprimidos, Libros de Plazas 737-740 provide the basis for this statement.
A detailed examination of the ascenso in America will appear in a forthcoming monograph by Mark A. Burkholder and D. S. Chandler on the Spanish crown and the American audiencias, 1687-1808.
Schäfer, El consejo, I, Appendix II.
Schafer has seventy-five men advancing in ibid. Richard L. Kagan has only seventy men advancing in “Education and the State in Habsburg Spain” (Ph.D. Diss., Cambridge University, 1968), Table 8.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Schäfer, El consejo, I, Appendix II.
Ibid., p. 364; II, 457.
John Leddy Phelan, The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century (Madison, 1967), p. 136.
Schäfer, El consejo, I, 367. Solórzano was one of only four men with experience on American audiencias that Schäfer reports as having reached the Council of the Indies after an intervening appointment to another Spanish tribunal. The others were Diego de Valverde y Orozco, Martin de Solís y Miranda, and Pedro de Bastida, all of whom first went to the Chancellory of Granada after service as oidores on the Audiencia of Mexico. Ibid., pp. 366, 369; II, 457-58.
Figures for appointments to the Council after 1700 are drawn principally from the titles of appointment found in AGS, XXIII, Inventario 13, legs. 8—9. Information on previous appointments to American positions comes also from ibid., Inventario 2, legs. 1-14 and 16-38 and Inventario 24, legs. 173-182. I wish to acknowledge the help of D. S. Chandler of Miami University in gathering this and other materials employed in this article that were originally collected for a study of the American audiencias.
Bernard, Le secrétariat, p. 166.
Title of Pedro de León y Escandón, San Ildefonso, October 8, 1735, AGS, XXIII, 2-30-208; AHN, Consejos, Libro de Plazas 737, p. 214.
Title of Juan Pizarro, February 28, 1728, AGS, XXIII, 13-8-232.
Title of the Marqués de San Juan, El Pardo, February 20, 1763, ibid., documento 411.
Extract by the mesa to February 26, 1773, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 824.
Note by Arriaga that was probably written no later than September 5, 1772, ibid.
Ibid. The order was dated September 5, 1772.
El Duque de Alba to the King, Madrid, February 26, 1773, ibid.
The Marqués de Valdelirios was Peruvian. Tomás Ortiz de Landazuri had held appointments in New Spain from 1741 until his appointment as contador general for the Council in 1765.
Francisco Antonio de Echávarri, Pedro Calderón Enríquez, and Domingo de Trespalacios y Escandón were the men with audiencia service.
Pedro de León y Escandón as Protector of the Indians for the Audiencia of Lima.
Council and Cámara of the Indies to the King, Madrid, February 20, 1773, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 824. This and the following three paragraphs come from this document.
For Arriaga’s support see Council of the Indies to Julián de Arriaga, Madrid, August 9, 1773, ibid.
Royal decree to the Duque de Alba, San Ildefonso, July 29, 1773, ibid. The decree raised the salary of the Council’s governor from 100,000 reales de vellón to 198,529 reales and 14 maravedís, that for members of the Cámara from 50,000 reales to 66,000 reales, that for councilors and fiscales from 48,000 to 55,000 reales. Each new councilor received 55,000 reales de vellón.
Council and Cámara of the Indies to the King, Madrid, July 31, 1773, ibid.
Arriaga to Roda, San Ildefonso, August 2, 1773, AGS, Sección de Gracia y Justicia, leg. 815 (antiguo).
Roda to Aranda, San Ildefonso, August 6, 1773, ibid.
Two consultas by the Cámara, September 6, 1773, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 824.
Title of Josef Pablo de Agüero, Madrid, December 5, 1773, AGS, XXIII, 2-57-281.
Royal decree to the Conde de Valdellano, El Pardo, February 26, 1776, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 824. The decree specified adding three ministers but the inclusion of Areche made clear that the number was four. Note to Sor Mayor, ibid. Also, the royal decree to the Conde de Valdellano referred to the addition of four places. El Pardo, March 11, 1776, ibid., leg. 657.
Ibid.
Title of Joseph Antonio de Areche, El Pardo, March 25, 1776, AGS, XXIII, 13-8-143.
Three consultas of March 18, 1776, AGI, Indiferente General, legs. 870B, 892, and 869.
Ibid.; José María Restrepo Sáenz, Biografías de los mandatarios y ministros de la real audiencia (1671 a 1819) (Bogota, 1952), p. 527.
Three consultas of March 18, 1776, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 869.
Royal decree to the Conde de Valdellano, El Pardo, February 26, 1776, ibid., leg. 824.
El Conde de Valdellano to Josef de Gálvez, May 6, 1776, ibid., leg. 870B, expediente Calderón Enríquez.
Note on ibid, by Josef Gálvez, Aranjuez, May 10, 1776.
Consulta of September 4, 1777, ibid., leg. 824.
Consulta of February 10, 1783, ibid., leg. 869.
Consulta of January 21, 1786, ibid.
Consulta of June 11, 1804, ibid., leg. 871.
“Relación de los Sugetos, que solicitan la Plaza Togada, que se halla vacante en el Consejo de Yndias por fallecimiento de Dn Antonio Jacinto Romay, y la Fisca de el por ascenso de Dn Thomás Maldonado” (ca. 1760), ibid., leg. 824.
There were no appointments in 1751. The following figures are drawn primarily from the sources listed in note 24.
Juan de Mérida, Rafael de Antúñez y Acevedo, and José Agustín Castaño.
AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 872, expediente Soler.
Pedro Muñoz de la Torre, Manuel de Soto, and García Gómez Xara.
The thirty-ninth man with personal knowledge of the Indies was Francisco López Lisperguer, a charqueño whose father had been an oidor of the Audiencia of Charcas. López Lisperguer was one of only two creoles named to the Council after 1750. The four men were Luis Francisco Mosquera y Pimentel, Domingo de Trespalacios y Escandón, Pedro Calderón Enriquez, and Francisco Antonio de Echávarri.
The following information derives from numerous relaciones de méritos y servicios, relaciones de títulos y grados, and consultas in the AGI.
The importance of the colegiales in the councils and patronage is best seen in Richard L. Kagan, Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (Baltimore, 1974). For the well known attack on the colegios, see, for example, George M. Addy, The Enlightenment in the University of Salamanca (Durham, N.C., 1966), chapter X; Vicente Rodríguez Casado, La política y los políticos en el reinado de Carlos III (Madrid, 1962), pp. 112-113; and, for a detailed examination of the reform of the four colegios at Salamanca, Luis Sala Balust, Visita y reforma de los colegios mayores de Salamanca en el reinado de Carlos III (Valladolid, 1958).
These figures are derived from those presented in Kagan, Students and Society, p. 93. From 1791 to 1808 only one colegial was named to the Council.
Title of Josef García de León y Pizarro, San Lorenzo, November 18, 1776, AGS, XXIII, 2-60-291 and title of Josef García de León y Pizarro, El Pardo, March 14, 1783, ibid., 13-8-105.
Gutiérrez had been regent and visitor general in Bogotá and Jacot had been regent in Lima.
Titles for Herrera’s successive appointments can be found in AGS, XXIII, 2-48-174, 2-54-43, 2-57-56, 2-60-271, 2-66-5, and 13-8-686. See also AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 869, expedientes Herrera y Rivero and Marqués de Herrera.
Villalengua’s career can be traced in AGS, XXIII, 2-57-153, 2-60-83, 2-65-2, 2-67-68, 2-73-265, and 13-8-44.
Information on entry into the Order of Charles III comes from Vicente Vignau, Indice de pruebas de los caballeros de la real y distinguida orden española de Carlos III desde su institución hasta el año de 1847 (Madrid, 1904) as well as contemporary relaciones de méritos and consultas.
Title of Gerónimo Sola, El Pardo, January 22, 1735, AGS, XXIII, 2-30-81 and title of Pedro de León y Escandón, San Ildefonso, October 8, 1735, ibid., 2-30-208.
AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 873, expediente Vásquez de Agüero; title of Juan Vásquez de Agüero, El Pardo, March 19, 1744, AGS, XXIII, 13-8-203.
Manuel Pablo de Salcedo had been fiscal de lo civil for the Audiencia of Valencia prior to his appointment to the Council in 1749. Antonio Jacinto Romay had contracted the fortunate marriage. Title of Antonio Jacinto Romay Armada y Sotomayor, San Ildefonso, October 13, 1743, AGS, XXIII, 13-9-360.
José Moreno Hurtado, José Ezpeleta, José de Rojas y Contreras, Pedro de León y Escandón, and Tomás Maldonado Sánchez Romero.
Moreno, León y Escandón, and Maldonado Sánchez Romero.
Pedro Calderón Enríquez, José Pablo Agüero, Manuel Díaz, José Antonio de la Cerda y Soto, Domingo de Orrantia, José de Gálvez, Domingo de Trespalacios y Escandón, and Antonio de Porlier. Porlier was the fiscal for New Spain; the other men were ministros togados.
García de León y Pizarro, Gutiérrez Piñeres, Tomás de Alverez Acevedo, Villalengua, the Conde de Pozos Dulces (Jacot) were the other five. For Urízar, see AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 873, expediente Urízar.
Romero, Francisco Leandro de Viana (Conde de Tepa), Jorge Escobedo, Miguel Calixto de Acedo, Ramón de Posada y Soto, José de Cistué y Coll, Juan Manuel González Bustillo, and the Marqués de Bajamar (Porlier), Governor of the Council.
The five with fifteen years or more of service were Romero, Viana, Cistué, Bajamar, and González Bustillo.
Villalengua and Posada.
Examples are in AHN, Consejos, legs. 12411, 13503, 13533, and 13534.
José Agustín Castaño had been an oidor of the House of Trade for five years and before that the governor of the mines of Almadén. Pedro Jacinto de Valenzuela had served as asesor general for the viceroy of Mexico and an alcalde del crimen of the Audiencia of Mexico for fourteen years before reaching the Council. José Pablo Valiente y Bravo had twenty-two years of American service in the audiencias of Guatemala and Mexico and as intendant of Cuba.
José Pablo Valiente to Señor, Seville, September 16, 1809, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 831. I thank Jacques A. Barbier of the University of Ottawa for sending me a copy of this document.
Bajamar had been named Protector of the Indians for the Audiencia of Charcas. Advanced to oidor of Charcas in 1765, he then moved to the Audiencia of Lima as fiscal del crimen in 1766. In 1775 he went to the Council of the Indies as fiscal for New Spain. He received a vote in the Cámara in 1780. From 1787 to 1790 he was Secretary of the Indies for Grace and Justice. With the post’s abolition in 1790 he became Secretary of Grace and Justice for Spain and the Indies.
See Jacques A. Barbier, “Elite and Cadres in Bourbon Chile,” HAHR, 52:3 (Aug. 1972), 416–435; Leon G. Campbell, “A Colonial Establishment:: Creole Domination of the Audiencia of Lima During the Late Eighteenth Century,” HAHR, 52:1 (Feb. 1972), 1—25; and Mark A. Burkholder, “From Creole to Peninsular: The Transformation of the Audiencia of Lima,” HAHR, 52:3 (Aug. 1972), 395-415.
Manuel Antonio Arredondo y Pelegrín, regent of the Audiencia of Lima from 1787 to 1816, was content with membership in the Order of Charles III, honors of the Council of the Indies, and a title of Castile. Undoubtedly the wealth of his wife in Lima encouraged him to remain there. She received the title of Marquesa de San Juan Nepomuceno and the right to found an entailed estate in 1800 in consideration of “los quantiosos bienes que posee.” Gazeta de Madrid, No. 31, April 18, 1800, p. 315.
Márquez de la Plata’s appointment was published in the Gazeta de Madrid of July 11, 1806. Fittingly a list of the members of the Council assembled in mid-September 1810 showed him “absent.” Copy of the decree of September 16, 1810, reestablishing the councils of Castile, Indies, Orders, and Hacienda, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 826. In fact, he was a participant in the junta established in Santiago in 1810, fled from the royalists in 1814, and returned to his adopted home in 1817. He died there the following year. Juan Luis Espejo, Nobiliario de la capitanía general de Chile (Santiago, 1967), p. 561.
El Conde de Tepa to Pedro de Acuña, Madrid, December 4, 1792, AGI, Indiferente General, leg. 872.
Author notes
The author is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He wishes to thank the University of Missouri-St. Louis for a summer research fellowship that made this article possible.
