Serving the King: Control and administration of the Royal Treasury of Lima in the late seventeenth century

• In Event: Reevaluating Colonial Administration in the Spanish American World: Habsburg incompetence vs. Bourbon expertise?

Abstract

Scholars have traditionally considered the seventeenth-century as the period of greatest decline of the Spanish empire. The regime of Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, and even the person of the monarch serve to support the idea of decadence. Nonetheless, there is evidence that the government of the last Hapsburg increased the control of the colonial treasury, its royal administrators, and the remittances of bullion to the peninsula. The present paper contributes to revise the misguiding conception of the last decades of the Spanish Habsburg administration. After the earthquake of 1687, the colonial administration in Lima was unable to perform its normal activities for several months. Nonetheless, the royal treasury of Lima drastically increased its remittances to Castile when the armada departed the port of Callao in 1690. Archival research uncovered other measures the Spanish administration implemented to regulate and supervise its personnel and administrative system. The visita to the Cajas Reales of Lima in the late seventeenth century evidence the Spanish government had the energy and capacity to bring their officers under control and order. The notable decrease of debts of the Caja Real shows the competence of the royal officers, who collected large obligations owned to the Crown. The regime of the last Hapsburg was strong enough to exert order and control officers. The main accomplishment of the visita was to reduce an extensive debt that remounted to several decades of mismanagement in Lima’s treasury. Compared to such previous administrations, the last Habsburg regime of the Spanish empire looks distant from decadent.

Author

• Judith M Mansilla, Florida International University