Manila and their agents in the court: long-distance political communication and imperial configuration in the seventeenth-century Spanish monarchy

ABSTRACT

The first ‘globalization’, which from the sixteenth century united the four parts (or continents) of the world, was first of all accomplished in terms of distance and time. There was extreme tension between the Philippines, the last circle of the Hispanic Empire, and its centre, Madrid. Here, information and instructions took three to five years, round trip. Contemporaries were aware of such tension and the complexities it entailed. For this, the Philippine authorities relied on the so-called procuradores (procurators), a group of deputies entrusted with power of attorney, who travelled across the globe, facing constant dangers, unforeseen difficulties and often long delays. Procuradores travelled a variety of routes, including going directly to Spain (‘La carrera de España’), travelling through the viceroyalty of New Spain and its capital Mexico City or crossing the Indian Ocean. In a global empire like the Spanish Catholic monarchy, authorities had to rely on individuals entrusted with producing and transmitting information, which they had to physically submit in the form of pleas and reports at court. In essence, the monarchs’ decision-making process in the Iberian Peninsula relied on information from the Empire’s local communities. Imperial policy is not therefore developed in one centre or in several centres, but in multilateral exchanges on different scales. This essay highlights three interconnected issues: first, the role of information as resource and crucial asset in the relationship between the King, his agents and his distant subjects; second, the importance of travel and physical presence at the Spanish Court for submitting pleas that, theoretically, could have been sent via letter; finally, the interconnection of religious, political and economic interests in the management of the monarchy’s affairs. The authors conclude with two case studies describing the religious experience of displacement and supplication: the journeys of Diego de Guevara to Fernando Moraga.