Council of the Indies

Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies
Real y Supremo Consejo de Indias del Reino de España
Royal Emblem
Jurisdiction	Spanish Empire
Type	Council
Headquarters	Royal Alcázar of Madrid
Last President	Francisco Moñino y Redondo
Composition	12 councilors
Predecessor	Junta de Indias
Successor	Council and Supreme Court of Spain and the Indies

The Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies (Real y Supremo Consejo de Indias), known simply as the Council of the Indies, was the most important organization of the administration of the Indies (America and the Philippines), since it advised the Viceroys of America in the executive and judicial function.

It was formed as a section within the Council of Castile and went on to become an entity in its own right in 1807. The members of the Council of the Indies were appointed by the King, with legislative powers over all the Spanish territories of America.

It never came to have a fixed physical seat; instead, it moved from one place to another with the King and his Court. This Council acted together with the Monarch and, in certain exceptional matters, acted alone.

Composition

The Empire of Philip II in 1598, distinguishing the scope of each territorial council in the polysynodial system of the Hispanic Monarchy
■ Territories assigned to the Council of Castile
■ Territories assigned to the Council of Aragon
■ Territories assigned to the Council of Portugal
■ Territories assigned to the Council of Italy from 1556, previously part of the Council of Aragon
■ Territories assigned to the Council of the Indies
■ Territories assigned to the Council of Flanders, including the territories disputed with the United Provinces

It was made up of:

• A President: he met every week with the King (generally on Saturdays at 10 in the morning) for the procedure of the "consulta", which consisted of briefly informing him of the matters dealt with in the Council.
  • The 12 councilors of the Indies: lawyers, people versed in legal science and scholars in American subjects; the great majority were men with experience as officials in the Indies, and the fewer were experts in the legislation of the Indies.

Permanent staff of the Council of the Indies:

• A fiscal (Crown attorney): a post held by the newest Councilor, he was in charge of safeguarding the interests of the Crown.
• Two secretaries, a Secretary of Peru and a Secretary of New Spain; the officials of the secretaries: they all work in the handling of papers.
• An escribano (scrivener): in charge of writing down the statements of the accused in trials before the courts.
• A grand chancellor: a post created by Charles I to favor a friend of his. He was in charge of keeping the royal seal. He had to countersign with the seal all the official documents of the Council of the Indies, charging a fee for each stamp he applied.
• Relatores (reporters): from one to three at certain periods; they were not of a fixed number.
• Contadores (accountants): from one to three at certain periods; they were not of a fixed number.
• An Astronomer: he had knowledge of the stars, since this was considered of great importance.
• A Cosmographer: his mission was to inform the Council of the Indies of everything relating to the discoveries that were being made in the New World.
• A Chronicler or Chief Scriptwriter of the Indies: his mission was to write the history of the Indies.
• An Advocate for the poor, etc.

Powers of the Council of the Indies

Powers of government

• Temporal government: the entire administration of the Spanish Empire fell within the competence of the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, and it therefore had to:
  • Plan and propose to the King the policies relating to the New World (settlement, relations with the natives, trade, etc.).
  • Organize the Indies administratively, whether through the creation of new Viceroyalties, new Governorates, etc., and establish their degree of autonomy with respect to the metropolis.
  • Propose to the King the names of the persons best suited for the posts of the principal American authorities (Viceroys, Governors, Oidores, among others).
  • Ensure the proper functioning of the authorities, issuing measures of administrative probity and appointing a judge of Residencia to carry out the respective Juicio de residencia.
  • Review daily the correspondence coming from America and the other possessions, both the official correspondence and that of the people.
  • Authorize and censor the books that could and could not pass to America.
  • Regulate and authorize the flow of migrants to the Indies: "provistos" (appointees), merchants of every rank, artisans of every kind, agricultural laborers, servants or attendants of officials, farmers and emigrants in general who could prove they had a specific destination.
  • Authorize the application of Castilian legislation in the Indies (from 1614).
  • Examine the legislation originating in America and give its approval or rejection.
  • Draft the norms that would govern in the Indies and that were issued by the King as Reales Cédulas or Reales Provisiones (similar to the Reales Cédulas but more solemn).

In addition, a distinction can be made between High Police and Low Police, the latter being the one corresponding to the municipal organizations.

• Spiritual government: it dealt with matters of a spiritual order and analyzed the rights granted by the Holy See, for example:
  • Exercising the Right of presentation.
  • Dividing the Bishoprics.
  • Reviewing Papal Bulls; if it agreed, it gave them the Exequatur or Pase Regio, without which they were not carried out.
  • Examining the provisions of the Church in America and the Synods, since these were not carried out without the approval of the Council of the Indies.

Powers of war

It met with the members of the Council of War, forming the Junta de Guerra de Indias (1600), where military strategies, the army and militias were dealt with. At the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, the "ministros de capa y espada" (military Councilors) were incorporated into this junta.

Powers of the Treasury

• Examining the accounts of the royal officials (this function was taken away from it in the time of Philip II; it was later given back to it).

Judicial powers

In matters of justice, the Council of the Indies was the highest court in America, and for the purposes of administering justice the Council met in a chamber of justice made up of ministers trained in law. In this matter (justice), the Council was absolutely independent, even of the King.

In general, the Crown sought to ensure that the Council heard few matters of a judicial nature, because they were private matters that overloaded the councilors with a great deal of work, which took away time they could devote to matters of government (of much greater relevance). For this reason, the appeals heard by the Council were of an extraordinary nature and of high value (over 1,000 ducats).

The function of the Chamber of Justice was to:

• Hear certain criminal matters (crimes committed on the Carrera de Indias, tax evasion, crimes of confiscation for contraband).
• Hear civil appeals from cases heard by the Casa de Contratación when the sum in dispute exceeded 40,000 maravedís.
• Hear appeals of Juicios de residencia.
• Hear the Recurso de segunda suplicación.

Exceptionally, in the chamber of government:

• Hear the Recurso de injusticia notoria.

Decline and dissolution of the Council

This institution was created in the year 1524 and, in the name of the sovereign, exercised competences in fiscal, legislative, ecclesiastical and judicial matters. It was a body that stood beside the King and that, together with the Casa de la Contratación, would govern the development of the Indies. Matters of the Indies were handled as follows: the fleets arrived at the port of Seville—later at that of Cádiz—where thousands of documents and files were unloaded, which the officials of the Council then had to classify by different subjects. Then all the matters were voted on collegially within the institution, while the consulta to be made to the Monarch was written, and when he decided on the matter, the document that would bear his signature was drafted. Then, after the case had been examined for a few years, the document would set sail again toward the Indies to be delivered to the corresponding recipient. As we can see, besides being long, this procedure hindered the proper development of the state bureaucracy. It was an inefficiency that turned out to be one of the factors that brought about the deterioration and decline of the institution itself, although not the only one.

Even before reaching the Century of the Enlightenment, in the previous century the body was already gradually losing competences and functions. Throughout that period, the Council had been undergoing a functional deterioration due to issues such as the venality of offices owing to the dire economic situation, with the post of fiscal or councilor being up for sale during the reign of Charles II. But there are other, more direct causes that brought about the progressive loss of competences, such as the stabilization of the juntas—taking matters away from the Council of the Indies—, problems and conflicts with other institutions—in which it normally lost—or something even more important, not having control over the Casa de Contratación, since from the end of the reign of Philip II a knight was placed as its President. Still in the time of the Habsburgs, with that strong Bourbon reformism still somewhat distant, this governing body was already in crisis, even losing powers—something that prevented it from fulfilling the functions for which it had been created.

In the Age of Enlightenment, the Bourbons tried to reform the whole institutional system that made up the monarchy so that the country would function differently, and moreover, they had the French administrative model as an example. In the case of the Council of the Indies, Philip V himself, at the beginning of the century, reduced its staff—taking advantage of the disloyalty of some ministers—and in 1713 carried out a reform by which the number of councilors of the institution was increased; the "nueva planta" comprised three presidencies, three secretaries, twenty councilors, two attorneys general and a fiscal. To fulfill that objective of replacing the inefficient polysynodial system, a series of posts was set up in order to resolve the various matters of government of the monarchy more quickly—in the case of Spanish America, we have already mentioned how complex and slow the handling of its affairs was—, known as the Secretariats of State and of the Office.

With regard to the existing secretariats, during the first years of the 18th century various changes took place both in the number of posts and in their competences, with matters concerning the Indies passing from one secretariat to another. Until, in 1721, the Secretariat of the Navy and the Indies was set up as a post in its own right, the scheme finally being organized into five secretariats: State, Justice and political government, Treasury, War, and the one mentioned above. In this way, matters of the Indies were handled more efficiently and nimbly, as the Secretary of the Navy and the Indies could resolve questions of Spanish America directly with the King, drafting the decision on the matter by means of a royal order signed by the secretary himself. Throughout the whole century, royal orders predominated, and this sharpened the decline that the Council of the Indies had already been suffering for some time, which went on losing even more powers, such as its competences in matters of trade, navigation or the treasury. The body remained as a high court of appeal and an advisory body in some matters, later being divided into three chambers: one of Council, another of Government and the last of Justice.

As we stated at the beginning of this article, a period of decline can show us a political reality; for example, that progressive loss of powers in favor of the Secretariats of State and of the Office, which increasingly acquired greater prominence, shows us that change of trend with the arrival of the Bourbons, who sought greater bureaucratic control of the Indies and then, upon seeing the inefficiency of the Council of the Indies in dealing with Overseas affairs, opted for ministers who governed the development of Spanish America with greater agility and efficiency.

Finally, in the 19th century there was a period spanning from 1808 to 1834 in which the Council disappeared and was restored, always depending on whether the Constitution of 1812 was in force—this established the suppression of all the councils and the creation of a Council of State. With the return of Ferdinand VII and of absolutism, the Council of the Indies was also re-established, until 1820, when the sovereign swore the Constitution. When the so-called "Liberal Triennium" ended in 1823, the institution was restored again, but in 1834 came the definitive dissolution of what had been one of the most important institutions with respect to the Indies for many years.

See also

• List of Presidents of the Council of the Indies.
• General Archive of the Indies.