Institutionalized Corruption in the Letrado Bureaucracy. The Case of Pedro Farfán (1568-1588)

Abstract

The growth of the Spanish Empire and its governmental machinery in the sixteenth century created a demand for letrados, a uniquely Spanish form of civil servant. They were men who came mostly from the impoverished lower nobility and who were trained in law as preparation for serving in the burgeoning bureaucracy. Law, whether canon or civil, offered a young man in sixteenth century Spain entry into well-paying, secure and prestigious jobs in church and state. Doctores and licenciados (the holders of the highest professional degrees) from Salamanca, Valladolid, Alcalá de Henares and other universities could be found all over the New World where they held positions as magistrates, judges, bishops, canons, university professors and town councilmen. They constituted both an administrative elite and a class unto themselves. In the latter half of the sixteenth century the demand for letrados was increased by the growing insularity of the Spaniards themselves — away from the more cosmopolitan Flemish and European orientation of the days of Charles V and toward an hispanization of the civil service.