Correos y comunicación escrita en la América colonial: esquemas de distribución de la correspondencia oficial (1514–1768)

– During the second half of the eighteenth century, the Spanish American mail apparatus began to be administered, directly, by the Spanish Crown. Until that time, the mail apparatus was administrated under concessions granted to particular individuals (called Correos Mayores). Indeed, in 1514 Lorenzo Galindez Carvajal received the title of Correo Mayor of the Indies but he exercised this right only partially. The central hypothesis of the article suggests that the colonial mail was not organized in the same way in all Spanish possessions. Instead, the mail apparatus functioned combining different administrative strategies depending on the practical necessities of each viceroyalty. Although the Crown tried in principle to organize the mail into a single body of regulations, the most important viceroyalties and Audiencias distributed the written correspondence in a differentiated manner. The following sections identify the three main models of mail administration in Peru, New Spain and New Kingdom of Granada. In general, the Spanish American mail apparatus was perceived by colonial officials as flexible but perfectible subject to modification to address their particular needs.