20 
Introduction 
subordinate officers, as fiscals (fiscales), or royal attorneys, the secretaries, 
the treasurer, and clerks. 22 
Commercial as well as political policies contributed to the Spanish 
system of colonial administration. In fact there were two mainsprings of 
action: strict concentration of authority in the crown, and commercial 
exclusiveness and monopolistic control. For the former the Council of 
the Indies was the chief agency; for the latter the Casa de Contratación. 
The latter institution came into existence in 1503, when, by its creation, 
Bishop Fonseca, who since 1493 had virtually been at the head of Indian 
Affairs, was relieved of many of his economic and commercial responsi¬ 
bilities. The Casa de Contratación had general supervision over com¬ 
merce, navigation, and all economic matters relating to the Indies, but 
was subordinate to the Council of the Indies after the latter was estab¬ 
lished. The four chief officers were the president, the treasurer, the 
comptroller (contador) , and the business manager (factor) ; in addition 
there were numerous minor officials. 23 
In connection with the Council of the Indies and the Casa de Contra¬ 
tación is to be noted the great code by which Spain regulated her colonial 
affairs and which was in process of evolution until 1680. This code, 
which was one of the most remarkable ever devised by any nation, was 
called the Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias . It was a 
heterogeneous mass of laws, pragmatics, ordinances, provisions, cédulas, 
resolutions, and decisions which attempted to regulate the procedure, 
duties, and guarantees of the various governing agencies and the peoples 
governed. The task of codifying the laws really began in 1560 when 
Philip II. ordered that the various regulations then in force in the audiencia 
district of New Spain should be printed. Later the same was ordered 
done in the vice royalty of Peru. In 1570 a general compilation of laws 
and provisions for the Indies as a whole was begun from which obsolete 
laws were omitted. From time to time additions and omissions were 
made to this compilation and in 1680 the work of codification was com¬ 
pleted. The result was printed at Madrid in 1681 as the Recopilación 
de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias mandadas imprimir y publicar por la 
Magestad Católica del Rey Don Carlos II. Nuestro Señor, and contained 
only the laws in force at that time. Since then the work has passed 
through four other editions the last of which, published in 1841, contains 
22 Lucas Alamán, Historia de Méjico desde los Primeros Movimientos que Prepararon 
su Independencia en el año de 1808 hasta la Epoca Presente (Mexico, 1849-1852), pp. 
32-36; Bancroft, Central America, I. (San Francisco, 1882) 280-283; Bourne, Spain 
in America, pp. 224-226; G. Desdevises du Desert, L’Espagne de l’Anden Regime: 
les Institutions (Paris, 1899), pp. 95-102; Bernard Moses, The Spanish Dependencies 
in South America (New York, 1914), I. 230-234; Juan de Solórzano y Pereyra, Política 
Indiana (Madrid, 1629-1639, 1776), Valenzuela ed., II. 393-422; Recopilación de Leyes 
de los Reynos de las Indias mandadas imprimir y publicar por la Magestad Católica del 
Rey Don Carlos II. Nuestro Señor (Madrid, 1681), lib. 2, tit. 2. 
23 Bourne, op. cit., pp. 222-223; R- B. Merriman, The Rise of the Spanish Empire in 
the Old World and in the New (New York, 1918), II. 222-227; B. Moses, op. cit., pp. 
234-262; Joseph de Veitia Linaje, Norte de la Contratación de las Indias Occidentales 
(Seville, 1672). 
