Institutional Changes and Experiments

Abstract

Columbus, as we have seen, came peddling his ‘Enterprise of the Indies’ to a society which had long been accustomed to maritime enterprise and adventure. But we need only look at the powers which he received from the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella (1474–1504/16), to realise how indebted the founders of empire also were to those who, over the previous centuries, had elaborated institutions which were capable of being adapted to new challenges and adventures. Columbus’s powers as admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy of the Indies were solidly based on medieval precedents, and to safeguard his interests he demanded a copy of all the privileges granted to those who had held office as admirals of Castile. He even succeeded, like so many late medieval nobles, in making his offices and powers hereditary, and he obtained permission to found a mayorazgo or entailed estate. Those who accompanied or subsequently followed Columbus — the viceroys, adelantados, alcaldes mayores and officials of the audiencias and corregimientos — were likewise armed with medieval titles and institutions. Naturally, the new frontier would change the nature of the institutions inherited from the later middle ages, but the number of these which survived into modern Spain and its Empire is very striking. That most famous of Spanish taxes — the alcabala — was still in existence in the early nineteenth century.