The majesty of commerce. Between royal supreme dominion and commercial law in the Spanish Indies (1674-1693)

Abstract

This article analyses how, through trade, the “supreme power” of the Hispanic monarchy was refuted by natural law and the law of nations at the end of the 17th century in the kingdoms of the Indies. This work explains –from the court system approach– the reasons that provoked the turning point of a disintegration of the domestic economic system (oeconomia), based on the grand governments of the viceroys in Spanish America, to give way to another model of political economy, more secularised and centralised (Consulado de Comerciantes de Lima), in which freedom of trade and the defence of individual property led to the reconfiguration of the political and economic space of America. Finally, it will be concluded that the American consulates of commerce encouraged the end of the “absolute power” of the viceroys, while promoting commercial development and the defence of the law of nations, anticipating the reforms of the Enlightenment.