Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Virreynato de las Provincias del Río de la Plata Virreinato de Buenos Aires
1776–1814
Flag
Territory of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata around 1796. In light green, the territories not effectively controlled but which formed part of the viceroyalty.
Status	Viceroyalty
Capital	Buenos Aires Córdoba (provisionally, July 14–August 1806) Montevideo (provisionally, from January 19, 1811)
Common languages	Spanish Languages of South America
Religion	Catholic
Government	Viceroyalty
King
• 1776–1788	Charles III
• 1808–1814	Ferdinand VII (de jure)
Viceroy
• 1777–1778	Pedro de Cevallos
• 1810–1811	Francisco Javier de Elío (not recognized by the authorities of Buenos Aires)
• 1811–1814	Gaspar de Vigodet (as Captain General and Governor of the provinces of the Río de la Plata)
Historical era	Spanish colonization of the Americas
• Created by royal decree	August 1 1776
• First British invasion of Buenos Aires	January 2, 1806
• British invasion of the Banda Oriental	January 18, 1807
• Second British invasion of Buenos Aires	June 28, 1807
• May Revolution	May 25, 1810
• The viceroyalty was abolished by the Cortes of Cádiz	1810–1814
• Fall of Montevideo. The Captain General of the provinces of the Río de la Plata is taken to Brazil	June 23 1814
Currency	Peso
Preceded by Succeeded by Viceroyalty of Peru Governorate of the Río de la Plata Spanish Guinea United Provinces of the Río de la Plata Paraguay Province of Charcas
In 1816 the Congress of Tucumán declared the independence of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata or of South America.

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, also known as the Viceroyalty of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata or the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires, was a political-territorial entity established by the Spanish Crown in America as an integral part of the Spanish Empire.

It was created first on a provisional basis, on August 1, 1776, and then definitively on October 27, 1777, by order of King Charles III of Spain at the proposal of his Secretary of the Indies, José de Gálvez y Gallardo, and its capital was the city of Buenos Aires, which had been of little importance until that moment.

The triumphant May Revolution in 1810, which took place in Buenos Aires—and which had been preceded by the failed movements of Chuquisaca and La Paz, both in 1809 in the Province of Charcas—unleashed the start of the Argentine War of Independence, which culminated in the separation of the viceroyalty from Spanish authority and its division.

On November 18, 1811, the last viceroy, Francisco Javier de Elío, left office, handing command to the then Governor of Montevideo, Gaspar de Vigodet, who became the highest Spanish authority as Captain General and Governor of the provinces of the Río de la Plata. Vigodet remained in his post until the surrender of Montevideo, on June 23, 1814, brought about the end of Spanish rule in the Río de la Plata.

Territorial location

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata arose from a split of the Viceroyalty of Peru and comprised the territories of the governorates of Buenos Aires, Paraguay, Tucumán and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the Corregimiento of Cuyo (which until then belonged to the Captaincy General of Chile) and the corregimientos of the Province of Charcas. Today this territory forms part of the republics of Argentina (including the disputed Malvinas Islands), Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia, as well as areas that since the second half of the 19th century have been incorporated into Brazil, and sectors of northern Chile and southeastern Peru. It also included the African islands of Fernando Poo (today Bioko) and Annobón in present-day Equatorial Guinea, ceded by Portugal to Spain in 1777, although the settlement of Spanish colonists would come after the independence of the former viceroyalty of the Indies.

It was located in the Southern Cone of South America on the Atlantic Ocean, and whether at any time it possessed coasts on the southern Pacific Ocean is a matter of dispute.

Reasons that led to the creation of the viceroyalty

The enormous area covered by the Viceroyalty of Peru made the tasks of government difficult, which was a powerful motive for the division of that territory.

Other causes that influenced the decision to carry out that separation were: the ambition of Portugal over the Banda Oriental, where Colonia del Sacramento and the Misiones Orientales were located, as well as the constant Portuguese advance along the entire Spanish-Portuguese frontier in South America; the growing importance that Buenos Aires was acquiring as a commercial center; the value of the estuary of the Río de la Plata as a gateway to the interior of the continent and the defense of the ports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo; and the successive expeditions of Great Britain and France to the coasts of Patagonia.

The Galleon Route

The itinerary established by the Spanish commercial monopoly in its colonies was, from 1573, officially called the Galleon Route. This route was used for trade between Spain and the Indies in two annual fleets bound for the ports of Veracruz—the Fleet of New Spain—in New Spain and Portobelo, in Panama—the Fleet of Tierra Firme. The shipments of silver, gold, emeralds, pearls and other goods leaving the Viceroyalty of Peru regularly went from the port of Callao to the city of Panama. From there the cargoes of riches were carried overland to Portobelo, and from that port the galleon fleets sailed the Caribbean Sea, calling at the ports of Cartagena de Indias, Santa Marta and Santo Domingo, and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the port of Seville, which was the only port authorized for embarkation and disembarkation until 1765. In the opposite direction, products from Spain arrived at Callao and from there could travel by muleback to Potosí, from where they continued on to Buenos Aires. Portobelo, Cartagena de Indias and Havana were the main bulwarks for the protection of the Galleon Route, and the trade fairs were held in Portobelo.

On November 21, 1739, British forces captured, sacked and destroyed Portobelo, which gradually showed the Spanish authorities that it was advisable to make a safer route official, and they thought of the one used until then for "exemplary smuggling": the one that clandestinely transported riches from Upper Peru along the Camino Real, passing through Salta and Córdoba until reaching the port of Buenos Aires, a port that had grown precisely because of the "exemplary smuggling." The Río de la Plata was the main alternative to the Galleon Route, which made it vulnerable to enemy attacks and made it necessary to strengthen the Spanish presence there. Since 1662 there had existed the Dry Customs House of Córdoba (Aduana Seca de Córdoba), which applied taxes of 50% to the products that passed from the Río de la Plata to Peru, without distinguishing whether their origin was legal or from smuggling.

In 1778 King Charles III promulgated the Regulation for Free Trade between Spain and the Indies, which put an end to the monopoly route by opening 13 ports in Spain and 25 in the Indies to reciprocal trade, among them Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Trade consulates were to be created in each of them, but only ships registered in Spain could use those ports. In 1795 the King authorized trade with non-Spanish colonies and allowed ships registered in the Indies to trade with Spanish ports. All these Bourbon Reforms substantially modified the economic powers and factors, both peninsular and Hispanic American.

History

The project of the southern viceroyalty

On October 8, 1773, King Charles III requested reports from the Viceroy of Peru, the Real Audiencia of Lima, and the Governor of Buenos Aires, regarding the possible creation of an audiencia in Tucumán.

Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Juniet replied on January 22, 1775, setting out the reasons why he believed an audiencia should be reinstated in Buenos Aires and a viceroyalty with its capital in Chile should be created that would encompass the Río de la Plata.

On November 18, 1775, the requests for reports were repeated to the Real Audiencia of Lima and to the Governor of Buenos Aires, who had not submitted them.

While the project was still under study, on April 1, 1776, the Portuguese Commander General of São José do Norte, the German Johann Heinrich Bohm, attacked the forts of Santa Bárbara and Trinidad and recovered the town of Río Grande, which had been conquered by Pedro de Cevallos on May 12, 1763, when he was Governor of Buenos Aires. This conflict with Portugal precipitated the King's decision to create a viceroyalty based on the Río de la Plata and not on Chile.

Spanish and Portuguese empires in 1790.

The personal viceroyalty

Pedro de Cevallos, first viceroy of the Río de la Plata.

On July 27, 1776, the Governor of Madrid, Lieutenant General Pedro de Cevallos, received a note appointing him Commander of the expedition to southern America that was being prepared in Cádiz, together with command of the provinces of the district of the Real Audiencia of Charcas and the Corregimiento of Cuyo, in the capacity of viceroy and captain general. Once the expedition was concluded, Cevallos was to return to his post in Madrid, "then leaving the military and political command of the provinces of the Río de la Plata in the terms in which they have been until now."

On August 1, 1776, King Charles III formalized the appointment by means of a royal decree, naming Cevallos:

(…) my Viceroy, Governor and Captain General of those of Buenos Ayres, Paraguay and Tucumán, Potosí, Santa Cruz de la Çierra, Charcas, and of all the Corregimientos, towns and territories to which the jurisdiction of that Audiencia extends, over which you may preside, in the event of going to it, with the same powers and authority enjoyed by the other Viceroys of my dominions of the Indies, according to their Laws; likewise including under your command and jurisdiction the territories of the cities of Mendoza and San Juan del Pico, which are today dependent on the Governorate of Chile; with absolute independence from my Viceroy of the Kingdoms of Peru, while you remain in those countries, both in everything pertaining to the military Government, and to the political and General Superintendency of the Royal Treasury, in all its branches and proceeds.

— Real cédula de erección del virreinato del Río de la Plata (Wikisource)

The royal decree of 1776 created a personal viceroyalty in favor of Cevallos, for as long as he remained in the territory, exempted from all the formalities and requirements to which viceroys were subject under the Laws of the Indies. The objective was to place in the hands of the Commander of the expedition all the resources available in the territories of Upper Peru, the governorates of Paraguay, Tucumán and the Río de la Plata, and the Corregimiento of Cuyo. The royal decree stated "that as soon as you are sailing, upon leaving Cádiz, you make yourself known as such Viceroy, Governor and Captain General on all the warships and transports, so that all those embarked on them may be so informed and be under your orders." The fleet departed from Cádiz on November 13, 1776.

The Cevallos expedition

The King was sending the expedition "directed at obtaining satisfaction from the Portuguese for the insults committed in my provinces of the Río de la Plata," so that his administration over the territory of the Río de la Plata and the incorporated cities of Cuyo would in principle have a strongly military character. At that inaugural moment the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata included the entire territory that is today the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul (called by the Spanish Río Grande de San Pedro), Santa Catarina and large areas that are today part of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as small sectors that currently correspond to western Mato Grosso. Cevallos began his campaign by attempting to push the limit of the Portuguese territories to east of the line of the Treaty of Tordesillas (which Spain placed at Cananéia Island) and to that end dislodged them from the strongholds of Colonia del Sacramento, Río Grande and the settlement of Nuestra Señora del Destierro—present-day Florianópolis—on the Island of Santa Catalina.

On February 20, 1777, the great expedition of 116 ships landed troops on the Island of Santa Catalina, which surrendered on March 5, with Lieutenant Colonel Juan Roca remaining as governor. Then, unable to attack Río Grande because of weather conditions, the fleet headed to the south of the Banda Oriental, arriving at Montevideo on April 20, 1777. On June 4 the Portuguese governor of Colonia del Sacramento surrendered, and the town was razed by order of Cevallos. He then continued the offensive overland in the east of the territory and took the Fortress of Santa Teresa and the Fort of San Miguel, advancing on the settlement of Río Grande, but the offensive was halted on September 4, 1777, when the peace negotiations between Spain and Portugal became known.

On October 1, 1777, the Treaty of San Ildefonso was signed between Spain and Portugal, which agreed on Spanish sovereignty over Colonia del Sacramento and San Gabriel Island, but obliged Spain to renounce definitively the Island of Santa Catalina and the territory of Río Grande, north of the Banda Oriental, which had been gradually occupied by Portugal and whose possession had been consolidated by the Treaty of Madrid (1750). Spain also received the cession of the islands of Annobón and Fernando Poo in the Gulf of Guinea.

The permanent creation of the viceroyalty

With hostilities with Portugal over, Cevallos arrived in Buenos Aires on October 15, and on November 6, 1777, issued the Auto de libre internación (Decree of Free Internal Trade), by which free trade of Buenos Aires with Peru and Chile was authorized, both for the produce of the land and for that of Spain. Previously, on July 8, 1777, he had prohibited the export of uncoined gold and silver except through the Port of Buenos Aires. These measures struck at the merchants of Lima, but had the backing of those of Cádiz.

On October 27, 1777, at San Lorenzo de El Escorial, the King issued another royal decree, by which he declared the viceroyalty definitively constituted, ending its exceptional and personal character:

(...) Don Juan José de Vertiz, Lieutenant General of my Royal Armies: By my decree of August 1 of last year, I saw fit to appoint as Viceroy, Governor and Captain General of the Provinces of the Río de la Plata, and the district of the Audiencia of Charcas with the territories of the cities of Mendoza and San Juan de la Frontera or del Pico of the Governorate of Chile, the Captain General of my Royal Armies Don Pedro de Cevallos, in view of the circumstances that then concurred for it, and for as long as this Captain General remained in the commission to which he was assigned in that southern America. And now understanding how very important to my Royal service and to the good of my vassals in that part of my dominions the permanence of this dignity is, because from Lima at a distance of a thousand leagues it is not possible to attend to the Government of the said Provinces so remote, nor to see that the Viceroy of them provides for their strength and preservation in time of war: I have resolved upon the continuation of the said office of Viceroy, Governor and Captain General of the Provinces of Buenos Aires, Paraguay, Tucumán, Potosí, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Charcas, and of all the corregimientos, towns and territories to which the jurisdiction of that Audiencia extends, likewise including under the same command and jurisdiction the territories of the cities of Mendoza and San Juan del Pico, which were in the charge of the governorate of Chile, with absolute independence from the Viceroy of Peru and from the president of Chile (...)

— Real cédula declarando permanente la erección del virreinato del Río de la Plata (Wikisource)

When the new viceroy, Lieutenant General Juan José de Vértiz y Salcedo, arrived in Buenos Aires, Cevallos handed command over to him on June 28, 1778, returning to Spain with most of the troops with which he had led the expedition, and died on December 26 of that year.

The Royal Ordinance of Intendants

See the text of the Ordenanza de Intendentes del Río de la Plata (Wikisource).

On October 25, 1777, the King appointed Manuel Ignacio Fernández as "intendant of all branches of the Royal Treasury," to take charge of the collection, custody and use of the revenue of the entire viceroyalty.

In 1781 Viceroy Vértiz sent a military force to Upper Peru to help suppress the rebellion of Túpac Amaru II. The force was commanded by Colonel Ignacio Flores, appointed President of Charcas.

For its better administration, the Royal Ordinance of Intendants of Army and Province of January 28, 1782, divided the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata into eight intendancies, namely: Buenos Aires, San Miguel de Tucumán, Cuyo, Paraguay, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Potosí, La Paz and Chuquisaca. It abolished the corregimientos and political-military governments with the exception of those of Montevideo and of the Guaraní Missions. Each intendancy was headed by an Intendant, the ordinance providing: "Art. 6: I order that the intendants have in their charge the four branches of Justice, Police, Treasury and War, granting them for this, as I do, all the necessary jurisdiction and powers, with respective subordination and dependence on the viceroy and Audiencias of that viceroyalty."

On April 14, 1783, the royal decree was issued that reestablished the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires, which shall have as its district the province of this name and the three of Paraguay, Tucumán and Cuyo. The solemn installation of the Real Audiencia took place on August 8, 1785.

Before the reforms were carried out, on August 5, 1783, the King made 17 modifications at San Ildefonso to the royal ordinance of 1782, maintaining the political-military governments of Moxos and Chiquitos, which he had ordered abolished, and modifying the intendancies of Cuyo, San Miguel de Tucumán and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which became part of Córdoba del Tucumán, Salta del Tucumán, and Cochabamba, respectively. The intendancy system was put into effect by the Viceroy in 1784.

The occupation of the Misiones Orientales by Portugal

Main article: Portuguese conquest of the Misiones Orientales

On August 8, 1801, a group of Portuguese irregulars allied with some discontented Guaraní, in the context of the War of the Oranges that was being waged in Europe, occupied the town of San Miguel Arcángel and a few days later conquered the rest of the Misiones Orientales and the town of San Francisco de Borja. Other Portuguese forces seized the guard posts between the Piratiní and Yaguarón rivers, Batoví, the Fort of Santa Tecla, the Guard of San Martín and the coastal area up to the Chuy Creek. In January 1802 they razed the Fort of San José located on the southern bank of the Apa River in Paraguay. Although the Portuguese King agreed to return the conquests, he never did so.

The British Invasions

Main article: British invasions of the Río de la Plata

In 1806, in the context of the Napoleonic Wars and within the framework of the eleventh Anglo-Spanish war, the United Kingdom—a power that since the 18th century had begun its rise relative to France in the colonial war, especially in the territorial possessions of India and North America, mainly Canada—collided with the new global French expansionism of emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and occupied the Cape Colony, located in South Africa. At the same time it took advantage of the fact that the Spanish Empire was in an extremely critical situation—since there was in Spain a covert struggle for the throne—to attempt, from Africa and following the Maitland Plan, to invade the estuary of the Río de la Plata, the core and main route of access to the interior of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. Its interests here were twofold: military and commercial. Because of the capture of Buenos Aires by the British, Viceroy Rafael de Sobremonte moved to Córdoba, a city he declared interim capital of the viceroyalty on July 14, 1806. This first British invasion ended with the defeat of these forces, which had to leave the region.

In 1807 the United Kingdom attempted a second invasion with the same aim of seizing the Río de la Plata, which ended with an identical result and which frustrated British colonialist plans in the viceroyalty.

Although they were not successful, the British invasions (which were not repeated in other regions of the Spanish colonies in America) contributed to the political crisis that would break out in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and would end in the May Revolution. These events exposed the fragility of the Spanish colonial order, whether of its administrative institutions, its officials or its military defense.

Rejection of the French king

Main article: Supreme Central Junta

Napoleon Bonaparte and Joseph I sent the Marquis of Sassenay to the Río de la Plata in order to have allegiance sworn to the new monarch imposed in Spain by the French occupation and to make known the Abdications of Bayonne of the kings Charles IV and his son Ferdinand VII. When the Marquis of Sassenay arrived in Buenos Aires in July 1808, Viceroy Santiago de Liniers consulted the Real Audiencia and the Cabildo of Buenos Aires to decide what position to take, but both the Cabildo and the audiencia rejected the French demands and burned the documents that Napoleon's envoy had presented to them, giving him a short time to leave the city. Sassenay went to Montevideo, but there he was arrested by Governor Francisco Javier de Elío. On August 21 the oath recognizing King Ferdinand VII as Spanish sovereign was held in Buenos Aires. In September 1808 Liniers declared war on Napoleon and Joseph I and recognized the Supreme Central Junta installed in Seville. José Manuel de Goyeneche was sent as a delegate to have allegiance to the Junta of Seville sworn in Peru and the Río de la Plata. Later the junta sent Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros as the new Viceroy to replace Liniers.

Movements of Chuquisaca and La Paz

Main articles: Chuquisaca Revolution and Junta Tuitiva

To suppress the revolts of Chuquisaca and La Paz, Viceroy Cisneros sent from Buenos Aires a contingent of five hundred men under the command of Vicente Nieto, seconded by the ship captain José de Córdoba y Rojas. The expedition set out on October 4, 1809, and upon reaching Chuquisaca there was no need for them to enter combat, since the insurrectionary focus submitted to it, while La Paz was occupied by Goyeneche with forces from the Viceroyalty of Peru.

The May Revolution and the disintegration of the viceroyalty

Main article: May Revolution

On May 25, 1810, the May Revolution took place in Buenos Aires, which deposed Viceroy Cisneros and appointed a provisional governing junta that refused to recognize the Junta of Seville and its successor, the Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies. The triumphant revolution in the capital marked the beginning of the end of the viceroyalty.

Portrait of Ferdinand VII, wearing the sash of the Order of Charles III, painted by Francisco de Goya. Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, Santander, Spain.

The Governor Intendant of Paraguay, Bernardo de Velasco, sent a note to Buenos Aires communicating that the province of Paraguay did not recognize its Junta. On June 24, 1810, a Paraguayan congress reiterated its loyalty to the Monarch Ferdinand VII and to the Council of Regency. On June 17, 1811, a governing junta presided over by Fulgencio Yegros was installed in Asunción; it deposed Velasco and then made peace with Buenos Aires.

On July 13, 1810, the Viceroy of Peru took the exceptional measure of provisionally reincorporating the intendancies of La Paz, Potosí, Chuquisaca and Córdoba del Tucumán into the Viceroyalty of Peru, although in practice the annexation also included the intendancies of Cochabamba and Salta del Tucumán, and the governments of Moxos and Chiquitos. He did so at the request of the President of Charcas, the Governor of Potosí and other authorities as well, clarifying in the decree of annexation that he did so: until the Most Excellent Lord Viceroy of Buenos-Ayres, and the other legally constituted authorities, are restored to their legitimate command, since only the King could formally detach territory from a viceroyalty.

The war of independence and the end of the viceroyalty

On January 19, 1811, Francisco Javier de Elío declared Montevideo the capital of the viceroyalty and took office as Viceroy of the Río de la Plata, a post to which he had been appointed by the Council of Regency on August 31, 1810, but the rural population of the Banda Oriental rejected his authority in February 1811, an event known as the "Grito de Asencio." On May 18 of that year, José Gervasio Artigas defeated the royalist commander José Posadas at the Battle of Las Piedras, leaving Elío in control only of Colonia del Sacramento and the besieged City of Montevideo, while the revolutionary troops of the Buenos Aires junta controlled the rest of the Banda Oriental.

On October 20, 1811, Elío and the Buenos Aires junta signed an armistice that returned to royalist control the Banda Oriental and the Entre Ríos towns of Gualeguaychú, Gualeguay and Concepción del Uruguay. By order of the Council of Regency, Elío left the post of Viceroy on November 18, 1811, and Field Marshal Gaspar de Vigodet took office as captain general and governor of the provinces of the Río de la Plata and president of the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires. In mid-December Elío embarked for Spain.

Three important events were decisive for the revolutionary undertaking in the Río de la Plata Region. Two battles, the only pitched battles fought in present-day Argentine territory during the course of the War of Independence, decided respective victories of the patriot armies over the royal ones and were owed to the pro-independence general Manuel Belgrano. The Battle of Tucumán, fought on September 24 and 25, 1812, called by its victor "the Sepulcher of Tyranny," was followed by a second Río de la Plata triumph at the Battle of Salta, on February 20, 1813, which succeeded in expelling the King's armies from the city and definitively freed the provinces located to the south from royalist rule. On June 23, 1814, Vigodet—the last Spanish ruler proper of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata—surrendered in Montevideo to the revolutionary troops commanded by General Carlos María de Alvear, leaving the Banda Oriental also free from the domination of the Spanish Crown.

On December 6, 1822, the Spanish Colonel Pedro Antonio de Olañeta withdrew from the territory of Jujuy that he had invaded, an event that marked the end of the Spanish military presence in what is today the Argentine Republic. The United Liberating Army of Peru, under the command of Antonio José de Sucre, carried out the final campaign against the last royalist strongholds of the former Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in Upper Peru, which concluded on April 1, 1825, with the Battle of Tumusla. After news of the royalist defeat at the Battle of Ayacucho had reached the Spanish court, and without the death of Olañeta on the banks of the Tumusla River being known, he was nominally appointed Viceroy of the Río de la Plata on May 27, 1825.

The band of the Pincheira brothers continued from 1817 carrying out raids and attacks in the name of the King of Spain in Chile, Cuyo and Argentine Patagonia until its definitive defeat at the Battle of the Epulafquen Lagoons on January 14, 1832, at the hands of the Chilean general Manuel Bulnes.

In the second half of the 19th century, Spain successively recognized the independence of the republics that emerged from the viceroyalty (dates of the exchange of ratifications of the treaties): Argentina (June 27, 1860), Bolivia (February 12, 1861), Paraguay (April 8, 1882) and Uruguay (October 9, 1882).

Territorial organization of the viceroyalty

Main articles: Territorial organization of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and Spanish Catholic dioceses of the Indies

The territory of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had two successive territorial organizations:

The Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1783.

The first, from 1776 to 1784, involved the existence of a single audiencia and the retention of the governorates, governments and corregimientos with which the viceroyalty had been constituted: 4 governorates and 3 corregimientos, with 5 political-military governments (or "subordinate provinces"), 20 indigenous corregimientos, two subordinate corregimientos of Spaniards and one political-military commandancy under their dependence. The Corregimiento of Cuyo was transferred from the Real Audiencia of Chile to the jurisdiction of that of Charcas. In 1778 the Superintendency of the Patagonian Establishments (1778–1785) and the short-lived Governorate of Fernando Poo and Annobón (1778–1780) were added, while the governorate created on the Island of Santa Catalina could not be retained after the peace with Portugal in 1777.

From 1784 the system of governorate-intendancies was applied, with 8 of them being created, which were given the name of provinces, and the corregimientos became partidos (districts), with the Real Audiencia of Buenos Aires being reestablished. The political-military governments were retained with the exception of the Government of Chucuito. The Superintendency of the Patagonian Establishments survived until 1785, when it was transformed into the Commandancy of Patagones. In 1784 the Intendancy of Puno was created with part of that of La Paz, but it was transferred to the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1796. From 1787 three partidos of this intendancy became part of the new Real Audiencia of Cuzco, which the others joined from 1796. At the time of the May Revolution in 1810, the 8 intendancies had under their dependence 40 partidos, 4 political-military governments and two lieutenancies of government. There were also several political-military commandancies located in frontier zones with Portuguese Brazil, and therefore particularly militarized, and others located at strategic and vulnerable points (such as the Commandancy of the Malvinas Islands), which were under the direct dependence of the Viceroy.

Ecclesiastically, the entire viceroyalty formed one province of the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Charcas, whose archbishop had 6 diocesan bishops as suffragans, that of Salta being created in 1806. When the Intendancy of Puno passed to the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1796, the partidos of Chucuito and Paucarcolla continued to depend on the Diocese of La Paz.

Economy of the viceroyalty

The name of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata suggests what the economic product was that proved fundamental to its economy: silver, obtained mainly from the mines located in Upper Peru. Of all the Upper Peruvian mines, the most famous was that of the Cerro Rico of Potosí. The same Upper Peruvian region was a great producer of other minerals: copper, tin and gold.

This economic base meant the development of a cart traffic that generally "went down" from Upper Peru to the Port of Buenos Aires following the Camino Real; such traffic in turn involved the breeding of mules, as well as horses and donkeys, which was carried out mainly in the cities of Tucumán.

This traffic promoted a quasi-artisanal industry of carts manufactured in San Miguel de Tucumán and in the city of Mendoza. The very slow carts were almost always drawn by oxen, and their journeys over long routes were reduced to a few leagues per day. The silver trade was thus the main item of exports from the viceroyalty to Europe. Such trade was frequently associated with smuggling and with an exchange of silver for enslaved people brought from Africa to the port of Buenos Aires to then be distributed to various areas.

Most of the population was concentrated in the Upper Peruvian areas, poor in agricultural and livestock production; this meant the development of new productive and commercial centers and circuits within the viceroyalty: the Pampas region and the Vaquerías del Mar, populated by immense herds of cattle, supplied cheap meat not only to the populations of Upper Peru but also to those of Portuguese Brazil; in the latter case massive smuggling was carried out from the Banda Oriental and the Misiones Orientales, then following the Cattle Route to Curitiba and from there to the "fair" of Sorocaba. The roundups of royal livestock (ganados realengos), that is, livestock which, lacking specific owners, nominally belonged to the Spanish Crown although in fact, being feral, tended to be of public usufruct, required a special type of free worker: the gaucho, often arrieros (drovers) who drove the livestock on the hoof along trails or tracks for hundreds of kilometers. The area of the Missions and Paraguay was the seat of the cultivation of yerba mate, cultivation begun by the Guaraní and the Jesuits. Yerba mate supplied almost the entire viceroyalty and even the Captaincy General of Chile. Other food crops arose thanks to Upper Peruvian demand: wines (in Salta, Tarija, Cuyo, Córdoba), aguardientes and singanis; and even olive plantations, mainly in La Rioja and Catamarca, but the olive plantations were to a large extent cut down to prevent them from competing with the Spanish monopoly.

Likewise, Upper Peru did not manage to supply itself with its production of camelid wool, and it became a customer that facilitated the planting of cotton in Santiago del Estero and the establishment of an incipient textile industry, in which cotton was processed together with the wool of goats, sheep and camelids in the territories of the present-day provinces of Santiago del Estero, Catamarca, Salta and La Rioja, as well as saddlery in Tucumán. On the other hand, the City of Córdoba benefited from being the crossroads of the routes that linked the west with the east and the north with the southeast of the viceroyalty; this crossroads made it common to designate as "El Arriba" ("the Up") all the territory located to the north and west of the City of Córdoba and as "El Abajo" ("the Down") all the territory located to the south and east of the same city.

Otherwise, agriculture to feed the scattered populations was reduced to subsistence agriculture, on many occasions only horticulture.

Whenever the analysis of an economy is undertaken, transport must be considered among the basic factors, in particular its speed; in this regard, on the most easily traversable terrain, which was (as it still is today) that of the very flat Pampas region, average speeds on horseback were some 8 to 10 leagues per day; races at "horse-killing" pace (with chasquis who changed horses at each post station) covered (in the Pampas region) 800 kilometers in ten days; the distance between the City of Mendoza and the City of Buenos Aires was covered at a gallop (by the chasqui system) in 22 days, traveling some 1,100 km that alternated flat and rugged relief. The official postal system in the territory that would later belong to the viceroyalty began to be established in 1748 and was improved and reorganized with post stations in 1771. In 1767 the La Coruña–Montevideo Overseas Mail was established, and in 1786 the parcel post between Buenos Aires and Potosí was established. Overland freight transport took times that seem implausible to people today: a solid-wheeled cart drawn by four healthy, strong oxen took 3 months to travel 1,000 kilometers.

River navigation was relatively fast "going down" the rivers: from Asunción to the City of Buenos Aires it took approximately 15 days, but "going up," or navigating the Paraná River upstream against the current (with the technology of the time a speed of only three miles per hour was achieved), required almost three months, and more frequently some 112 days. In 1739 the Real Audiencia of Charcas ordered that Santa Fe be a puerto preciso (mandatory port) for navigation from Paraguay, which was confirmed by a royal decree on April 1, 1743. All ships coming from Paraguay had to unload their cargo in Santa Fe to continue overland to Buenos Aires, which provoked disputes among the cabildos and governors of the three cities. On April 13, 1780, Viceroy Pedro Melo de Portugal provisionally abolished the privileges of the mandatory port of Santa Fe, which was confirmed by the Council of the Indies on February 14, 1781.

The ports

The city of La Trinidad and port of Santa María del Buen Ayre was chosen as the capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata because its port supplied a broad market. With the Regulation of Free Trade of 1778, the Port of Buenos Aires had links with Spain and with almost all of America. However, because of its muddy bottom, large-draft ships could not moor at its docks. For this reason, the port of Montevideo, with a rocky bottom and greater depth, offered natural advantages that allowed it to gain an importance comparable to that of Buenos Aires, or even greater. On several occasions this earned it confrontations with the capital of the viceroyalty.

Montevideo also quickly became a great commercial center. Its strategic position allowed it a large movement of merchant ships. The city grew rapidly, especially the social sector linked to trade, mainly in livestock. For the city, the business that prospered most was the so-called transit trade: the merchandise that passed through the port of Montevideo paid a tax for the days it remained there. All this economic and social development experienced by the area was not accompanied by administrative reforms adapted to that economic growth.

To combat smuggling, in 1779 the Resguardo del Puerto de Buenos Aires (Guard of the Port of Buenos Aires) was created, a military body made up of officers and troops under the command of a Commander who oversaw the port, the coasts of the Río de la Plata and the land exits. Another Resguardo was created in the Port of Montevideo in 1780, and others in cities such as Corrientes, Salta, Córdoba and the town of Oruro.

In 1797 Viceroy Antonio Olaguer Feliú authorized the entry of foreign and neutral ships into the port of Buenos Aires to stimulate the commercial activities of the viceroyalty, which were beginning to suffer the negative effects of the growing tensions among the European powers.

Viceregal institutions

In 1791 the Royal Press of the Foundlings published the Guia de forasteros en la ciudad y virreynato de Buenos-Ayres: para el año de 1792 (Guide for Visitors to the City and Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires for the Year 1792), which contains a list of the institutions of the viceroyalty residing in Buenos Aires:

• Secretariat of the Chamber: a secretary, 3 officials, an assessor general and auditor of war, a chief notary of government and war and a notary of proceedings.
• Secretariat of the General Superintendency of the Royal Treasury (a superintendent existed between 1778 and 1788, when his functions passed to the Viceroy): a secretary, 4 officials, a prosecutor (fiscal), an assessor and a recording notary.
• Praetorial Real Audiencia: a President (the Viceroy), a Regent, a dean, 4 oidores, a civil prosecutor, a criminal prosecutor and protector of natives, a chancellor, a civil prosecutor's agent and another for criminal matters, 2 reporters (relatores) and 2 chamber notaries.
• High Tribunal and Real Audiencia of Accounts (or Chief Accounting Office, created in 1767): its president was the Viceroy as superintendent of the Royal Treasury. It was made up of 3 chief accountants, a supernumerary, a notary, 6 auditing accountants, 8 accounting officials, an archivist and one from the accounting office of Retazas.
• Superior Board of the Royal Treasury (created in 1784 to oversee the finances of the intendancy and the cabildos). It was made up of: the Viceroy as President, the Regent, an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, the dean Accountant of the Tribunal of Accounts, the Army Accountant, a reporter and a recording notary. It was in charge of the general Superintendency of the Royal Treasury, of the economic affairs of war and of the branches of propios y arbitrios (municipal revenues and excise duties) and community property of the towns, with absolute exclusion of all the Tribunals and dependent solely on the royal person, through the reserved channel of the universal office of the Indies. It also functioned as the Superior Board of Appeals of the Royal Treasury with respect to the decisions of the audiencia.
• Superior Board of Propios y Arbitrios: the Viceroy as President, the Regent commissioned by the Viceroy, an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, the dean Accountant of the Tribunal of Accounts, and a secretary.
• Superior Board of Applications: the Viceroy as President, the Regent commissioned by the Viceroy, an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, 2 members, the Army Accountant, a reporter and a notary.
• Provincial Board of Temporalities: the Viceroy as President, the Regent commissioned by the Viceroy, an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, 2 members, a reporter and a notary.
• Board of Tithes: the Viceroy as President, the Regent commissioned by the Viceroy, an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, 2 administrators (hacedores), the Treasurer and the Army Accountant, and a notary.
• Board of Auctions: an Oidor and the civil prosecutor of the Real Audiencia, a member, the Treasurer and the Army Accountant, and a notary.
• Holy Crusade: a commissary, an assessor, a prosecutor, the Treasurer and an Accountant of the Royal Treasury and a notary.
• Commissariat of the Holy Inquisition: a commissary, a Chief Constable (Alguacil Mayor) and a notary.
• Montepío of the Ministry of Justice and Royal Treasury: a director, two members, the Army Accountant, the Tobacco Accountant, a secretary and accountant and a Treasurer.
• General Treasury of the Army and Royal Treasury: it was made up of an Accountant, a Treasurer, a factor, an attached auditing Accountant, a retiree, 3 accounting officials, 2 clerks and 6 treasury officials. They were in charge of the Royal Treasury Office of Buenos Aires, on which the royal treasury offices of the capitals of each intendancy depended. Subordinate to the latter there were royal treasury offices in: Santa Fe, Chucuito, Carabaya, Mendoza, Oruro, Carangas, San Miguel de Tucumán and Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
• Warehouses of the Royal Treasury, Naval Artillery: a warehouse keeper and an assistant.
• Royal Customs House: made up of an administrator, an accountant, two inspectors (vistas, 1st and 2nd class), a warden, 5 accounting officials, 4 clerical officials, 2 treasury officials (1st and 2nd class), a silver accountant, a receiver of the Sisa (excise) and 2 receivers.
• Royal Tobacco Revenue: in the General Directorate there was a director general, an accountant general, an administrator general, an amanuensis and a notary.
• General Accounting Office of the Revenue: there was an accountant and 6 officials.
• General Treasury: there was a treasurer and 2 officials.
• General Administration: there was an administrator, an auditor and 2 officials.
• General Directorate of New Works: there was a director general and an amanuensis.
• General Warehouses: there was a trusted administrator and an auditing accountant.
• Resguardo (Guard): 2 inspectors.
• Principal Administration of the Royal Postal Revenue: the subdelegate was the viceroy. There was an administrator, an accountant, 6 officials and a supernumerary.
• General Accounting Office of Propios y Arbitrios of the Viceroyalty: an accountant and chief official and 2 members.

Later the Royal Tribunal of the Consulate was created by a royal decree of January 30, 1794. It was made up of: a prior, 2 consuls, 8 councilors, an assessor, a trustee (síndico), a secretary, an accountant, a treasurer, a notary, porters and constables. It had deputies in all the intendancies and commercial centers, and from the end of 1799 it created under its jurisdiction a Nautical Academy, which was closed in 1806 due to royal disapproval. The Royal Tribunal of the Protomedicato was created by royal order of July 19, 1798; previously it existed as the Royal Protomedicato, composed of: a chief physician (protomédico), an assessor, a prosecutor, a Chief Constable, a notary and 3 examiners.

Bibliography

• Abad de Santillán, Diego (1965). Historia Argentina (in español). Buenos Aires: TEA (Tipográfica Editora Argentina).
• Luna, Félix (1994). Breve historia de los argentinos (in español). Buenos Aires: Planeta / Espejo de la Argentina. 950-742-415-6.

See also

• List of viceroys of the Río de la Plata
• Argentina in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
• Military organization of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
• Southern indigenous frontier of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

• Viceroyalty of New Granada
• Viceroyalty of Peru

External links

• El Virreinato del Río de La Plata. Historia, ciudades, economía, costumbres y milicias del Virreinato del Río de La Plata (in Spanish)
• Documentos para la Historia del Virreinato del Río de la Plata - SAIJ (in Spanish)