Note V-13 — Chapter V · ADMINISTRATION OF THE INDIES. 1492-1526.

The Consejo Supremo de Indias, Supreme Council of the Indies, sometimes termed the Consejo de Indias, or India Council, was a body possessing executive as well as judicial powers, in permanent session at Madrid, and having the same jurisdiction over Spanish colonies in America that was held in Spain by the other supreme councils, especially the Consejo de Castilla. Immediately after its discovery the American portion of the Spanish realm was superintended by the Council of Castile, or by councillors selected therefrom. But with the constantly increasing burden of business the creation of a separate supreme tribunal became necessary. Thus the machinery set in motion by Ferdinand was augmented by Charles, and further improved by Philip, until these vast western interests were watched over with undeviating care. Thence all measures for the government and commerce of Spanish America issued; it was the tribunal likewise of ultimate resort where all questions relating thereto were adjudicated. For many years, however, the India Council had no formal existence. Fonseca; Hernando de Vega, comendador mayor of Leon; Mercurino Gatinara, afterward superintendent of all the councils; a gentleman of the emperor's bedchamber called De Lassao; Francisco de Vargas, treasurer-general of Castile, and others, acted specially at the request of their sovereign. This fact gave rise to errors of date into which several historians fell. Thus Prescott, Ferd. and Isabella, iii. 452, says, copying Robertson, Hist. Am., ii. 358, that the Council of the Indies was first established by Ferdinand in 1511. Helps, Span. Conq., ii. 28—drawing a false inference from a false inference drawn by Herrera, ii. ii. xx., who makes the date 1517—goes on to describe a council for Indian affairs, dating its organization 1518, and of which Fonseca was president, and Vega, Zapata, Peter Martyr, and Padilla were members.

It was the first of August, 1524, that the office proper of the Council of the Indies was created. See Solorzano, Politica Indiana, ii. 394. The decree of final organization may be found in the Recop. de Indias, i. 228. It sets forth that in view of the great benefits, under divine favor, the crown daily receives by the enlargement of the realm, the monarch by the grace of God feeling his obligation to govern these kingdoms well, for the better service of God and the well-being of those lands, it was ordered that there should always reside at court this tribunal. It should have a president; the grand chancellor of the Indies should also be a councillor; its members, whose number must be eight, should be letrados, men learned in the law. There were to be a fiscal, two secretaries, and a deputy grand chancellor, all of noble birth, upright in morals, prudent, and God-fearing men. There must be, also, three relatores, or readers, and a notary, all of experience, diligence, and fidelity; four expert contadores de cuentas, accountants and auditors; a treasurer-general; two solicitadores fiscales, crown attorneys; a chief chronicler and cosmographer; a professor of mathematics; a tasador to tax costs of suits; a lawyer and a procurador for poor suitors; a chaplain to say mass on council days; four door-keepers, and a bailiff, all taking oath on assuming duty to keep secret the acts of the council. The first president appointed was Fray García de Loaysa, at the time general of the Dominicans, confessor of the emperor, and bishop of Osma, and later cardinal and archbishop of Seville. The first councillors were Luis Vaca, bishop of the Canary Islands; Gonzalo Maldonado, later bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo; Diego Beltran; the prothonotary, Pedro Martyr de Anglería, abbot of Jamaica, and Lorenzo Galindez de Carbajal. Prado was the first fiscal. A list of the earlier presidents, councillors, and officials may be found at the end of Descripcion de las Indias Occidentales, in vol. i. Barcia's edition of Herrera.

The jurisdiction of the council extended to every department, civil, military, ecclesiastical, and commercial, and no other council in Spain might have cognizance of any affairs appertaining to the New World. Two thirds of the members must approve of any law or ordinance before it was presented to the king for his signature. In the Recopilacion de las Indias, i. 228-323, is given the legislation on the council to 1680. Philip II. ordered the council to be obeyed equally in Spain and in the Indies. Three members were to constitute a quorum, and sit from three to five hours every day except holidays. For purposes of temporal government the New World was to be divided into viceroyalties, provinces of audiencias, and chancillerías reales, or sovereign tribunals of lesser weight than audiencias, and provinces of the officials of the royal exchequer, adelantamientos, or the government of an adelantado, gobernaciones, or governmentships, alcaldías mayores, corregimientos, alcaldías ordinarias, and of the hermandad, concejos de Españoles y de Indios; and for spiritual government into archbishoprics and suffragan bishoprics, abbeys, parishes, and diezmerías, or tithing districts, and provinces of the religious orders. The division for temporal matters was to conform as nearly as possible to that for spiritual affairs. The council was commanded to have for its chief care the conversion and good treatment of the Indians. The laws made by the Council for the Indies should conform as nearly as possible to the existing laws of Spain. In selecting ecclesiastics and civil officers for the Indies, the greatest care should be exercised that none but good men were sent, and their final nomination must rest with the king. Nepotism was strictly prohibited, and offices were not to be sold. In 1600 Felipe III. ordered that twice a week should be held a council of war, composed of eight members, four of whom were councillors of the Indies, and four specially selected by the king. It was decreed in 1584 that the offices of governors, corregidores, and alcaldes mayores of the Indies, when bestowed on persons residing in Spain, should be for five years; when residents in the Indies were appointed, it should be for three years. Felipe IV. in 1636 ordered that in the archives of the council, beside records, should be kept manuscripts and printed books treating on matters moral, religious, historical, political, and scientific, touching the Indies, all that had been or should be issued; and publishers of books of this class were required by law to deposit one copy each in these archives. Two keys were ordered kept, one by the councillor appointed by the president, and the other by the senior secretary. And when the archives of the council became too full, a portion might be sent to Simancas. It was early ordered that the chronicler of the council should write a history, natural and political, of the Indies, every facility being afforded him; and before drawing his last quarter's salary each year, he must present what he had written. So it was with the cosmographer, who was to calculate eclipses, compile guide-books, prepare tables and descriptions, and give an annual lecture. The regulations governing this august body were most wise, and it was the constant aim of the Spanish monarchs to increase its power and sustain its authority. Its jurisdiction extended over half the world, being absolute on sea and land. By it viceroys were made and unmade, also presidents and governors; and, in ecclesiastical rule, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and lesser spiritual dignitaries. His Holiness himself was second here. All bulls or briefs of indulgences issued by the pope must be laid before the Consejo de Cruzada, and pass through the Council of the Indies. The Consejo de Indias continued in Spain till by a law of the Cortes, March 24, 1834, it was abolished, as indeed was the Consejo de Castilla. The judicial functions of the two were vested in the Tribunal Supremo de España é Indias; their executive powers in the Consejo Real de España é Indias, both being created by the same law.

The next most important agency in the management of New World affairs was the Casa de Contratacion, house or board of trade, supreme in commercial matters, save only in its subordination to the Consejo de Indias, in common with every other power below absolute royalty. As before stated, on the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Fonseca, with two or three assistants, was appointed to take charge of the business appertaining to the discovery, the nature or importance of which was then but faintly conceived. This Indian office or agency was established at Seville, with a branch office in the form of a custom-house at Cádiz. But before the expiration of the first decade the New World business had so increased, and the New World dimensions were so rapidly expanding, that it was found necessary to enlarge the capabilities and powers of the India Office; hence by decrees of January 20, and June 5, 1503, was ordered established at Seville the Casa de Contratacion de las Indias, or India house of trade, that commerce between the mother country and the Indian colonies might be promoted. The first cédula ordered the office placed in the arsenal, the second in a building known as the alcazar viejo, and in that part of it called the cuarto de los almirantes, or admirals' quarters. The board consisted of a president, three royal officers, or judges, to wit, treasurer, auditor, and factor; also three judges bred to the law; one fiscal, and other lesser officers and attendants. Among the first to serve, beside Fonseca, were Sancho de Matienzo, a canon of Seville, treasurer; Francisco Pinelo, factor, or general agent; and Jimeno de Berviesca, contador, or auditor. By law those three officers were to reside in the building; and were to despatch all ships going to the Indies, and receive all merchandise coming thence. In all which they were scrupulously to respect the agreement made with Columbus by the sovereigns. They were, moreover, to proclaim that licenses for discovery and trade would be given, under just conditions, to all seeking them and filing commensurate bonds. See Nueva España, Brev. Res. MS.; Veitia Linage, Norte de la Contratacion; Recop. de Indias; Solorzano, Pol. Ind.; Zamora y Coronado, Bib. Leg. Ult.; Young's Hist. Mex., 40-6; Democratic Review, i. 264-9; Walton's Exposé, 24; Niles' S. Am. and Mex., 65-8; Revolution in Sp. Am., 5-6; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, iv. 916-17. An officer appointed by the king resided at Cádiz to despatch vessels under the supervision of the Casa de Contratacion. The India House was a court of judicature no less than a board of trade; it had cognizance in all civil, criminal, and commercial questions arising from the traffic of Spain with the Indies, appeal being to the Council of the Indies. I will mention a few only of the more important of the many minor orders regulating this board. The volume and variety of its business rapidly increased from year to year. In 1510 Diego Colon was instructed to inform its officers concerning all that he should write to the king. The board was obliged to possess itself of the minutest knowledge concerning New World affairs, and of persons asking permission to go thither, and in the execution of its duties it was not to be interfered with even by royal officers of high rank. The actual powers conferred on the three officials first named by Queen Juana are not given by any of the chronicles, or collections of laws, which I have examined. Indeed, the powers and jurisdiction of the board were never clearly defined until the issuing of the ordinances of the 23d of August, 1543, known as the ordenanzas de la casa, and which should not be confounded with the ordenanzas of other years. Every day but feast-days the board should meet for business, and remain in session for three hours in the forenoon, and on the afternoons of Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the despatch of ships. Absence involved primarily loss of pay, and finally loss of office. If this be not time sufficient for the business, they must take more time. The president and judges together should transact the business; a judge might not act singly except upon a matter referred to him by all. The notary should keep in his book an account of the hours of absence among the officers. Before the platform on which sat the judges, benches were ordered placed for the convenience of the visitadores, or inspectors of ships, and such other honorable persons having business there as should be invited by the tribunal to sit. The authorities of Seville should not interfere in the trial and punishment of crimes committed on board ships sailing to and from the Indies. If the penalty was death or mutilation, the offender was to be tried by the three judges, members of the board, learned in the law. In the civil suits of private persons, appertaining to the Indies, litigants were given the option of bringing their disputes before the judges of the India House, or before the ordinary justice of Seville. Disputes arising from shipwreck, loss of cargo, and frauds connected therewith, were all brought before the India House. Traders to the Indies residing in Seville were authorized to meet and elect a prior and consul, or consuls, which consulate should be called the Universidad de los Cargadores á las Indias, and hold their meetings in the Casa de Contratacion. No foreigner, his son or grandson could so hold office. This consulate had cognizance in disputes between these merchants and factors in matters relative to purchases, sales, freights, insurance, and bankruptcy, all being subordinate to the regular tribunal of the India House. Appeals were from the consulate to one of the regular judges selected annually to that duty. The consulate could address the king only through the Casa de Contratacion, and government despatches from the Indies must be forwarded by the board. As justice alone was the object of these merchants, and not chicanery, or the distortion of evidence, parties to suits before the consulate were not allowed lawyers. That harmony might be maintained, the Casa de Contratacion should carry out the orders of the audiencia de grados of Seville, if deemed conformable to law, and to existing regulations of the board. Communications from the board to the king must be signed by the president and judges conjointly, and no letter must treat of more than a single subject. All gold, silver, pearls, and precious stones coming from the Indies were first to be deposited in the India House, and thence distributed to the owners. The king's share was to be placed in a safe with three keys, or if this was too small, then in a room having three keys. Other safes were to be kept, one for each kind of property. Accounts of receipts at the India House were to be rendered the king every year. The board must render an annual statement of its expenditures on religiosos sent to the Indies. Felipe IV. ordered that the board should collect from all ships and merchandise, including a pro rata on the king's share, the cost for convoying them forth and back. Such was the famous India House at Seville, modest in its beginning, mighty in its accomplishments, through which passed into Spain the almost fabulous wealth of Spanish America.