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The Montepíos and Regulation of Marriage in the Mexican Bureaucracy, 1770-1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

D. S. Chandler
D. S. Chandler*
Affiliation:
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
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Extract

The Spanish Crown established montepíos throughout the Empire after 1763, first in Spain and then in the overseas possessions. These agencies provided an excellent vehicle for shaping and implementing royal marriage policy in America. The institutions functioned as monitoring units and also provided penalties and incentives motivating bureaucrats to conform to the king's will when contemplating marriage. The montes became a central part of the process through which the king attempted to regulate his servants' marriages.

The king intended these agencies, funded by a combination of royal and membership contributions, to provide modest pensions for survivors of deceased officials. In Madrid, Mexico City, and Lima, the Crown founded autonomous institutions known as Montepíos de Ministros for senior officials and Montepíos de Oficinas for subordinates. Lesser capitals received only one office for all ranks. All the montepíos, however, were important not only as sources of pensions but also as a means of enhancing royal control over marriage in the bureaucracy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , July 1986 , pp. 47 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1986

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References

1 The montepíos, referred to casually as montes, were juntas or committees composed of several vocales or protectors representing the chief branches of the bureaucracy they served. I am grateful to Mark A. Burkholder for commenting on an earlier draft of this article.

2 Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las indias, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1943), libro II, título xvi, ley Ixxxii.

3 Recopilación, libro II, título xvi, ley lxxxiv.

4 Recopilación, libro II, título xvi, ley lxxxv.

5 Recopilación 1:395, unnumbered decree of 1 June 1676.

6 Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla (hereinafter AGI), Indiferente, legajo 1816, Consulta of the Council of the Indies, 15 April 1795, noting that an audiencia judge marrying outside the district did not need a royal license but only that of the local executive, citing a previous consulta of 27 July 1792 and a royal order of 28 February 1793. Also, legajo 1817, Viceroy of the Rio de la Plata to the King, Buenos Aires, 12 November 1795.

7 Recopilación, libro VIII, título iv, ley lxii. The law banned such marriages to the fourth prohibited degree; that is, an oficial real could not marry the second cousin of his fellow oficial real.

8 Recopilación, libro VIII, título iv, ley lxiii.

9 Recopilación, libro VIII, título ii, ley viii.

10 Phelan, John Leddy The Kingdom of Quito in the Seventeenth Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967), p. 153.Google Scholar

11 Burkholder, Mark A. and Chandler, D.S. From Impotence to Authority: The Spanish Crown and the American Audiencias, 1687–1808 (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1977)Google Scholar (hereinafter Burkholder and Chandler); see part one.

12 Barbier, Jacques A. Reform and Politics in Bourbon Chile, 1755–1796 (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1980)Google Scholar; Andrien, Kenneth J. “The Sale of Fiscal Offices and the Decline of Royal Authority in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1633–1700,” Hispanic American Historical Review 62 (1982): 49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Phelan, John Leddy The People and the King (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978), pp. 14–16.Google Scholar Also, Chandler, Dewitt Samuel “Pensions and the Bureaucracy of New Spain in the Late Eighteenth Century,” unpublished PhD dissertation, Duke University, 1970, pp. 130–34.Google Scholar

14 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1811, reglamento, Spanish ministerial monte, article 5, chapter 3.

15 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1811. draft reglamento, Mexican ministerial monte, article 5, chapter 3.

16 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1811, reglamento, Mexican ministerial monte, article 7, chapter 3. Also, de Fonseca, Fabián and de Urrutia, Carlos Historia general de real hacienda, 6 vols (Mexico, 1978) (hereinafter Fonseca and Urrutia), 6: 101–16.Google Scholar

17 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 858, draft reglamento, Mexican monte de oficinas, article 7, chapter 5; Indiferente, legajo 97, reglamento, Mexican monte de oficinas, article 7, chapter 5. Also, Fonseca and Urrutia, VI: 151–76. See AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1809 for the reglamento of the Spanish monte de oficinas, article 5, chapter 5.

18 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 97, reglamento, Mexican monte de oficinas, article 8, chapter 5; also, Fonseca and Urrutia, VI: 151–76.

19 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1813, royal license to Diego Martínez de Araque, regent-designate of the Audiencia of Manila, to marry doña Joaquina Pueyo y Unies, Madrid, 29 December 1777; legajo 1814, Joaquina Pueyo y Urries to José de Gálvez, Santo Domingo, 4 January 1784.

20 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, testimonio de la instancia del tercer vista de la aduana dn Miguel Sánchez Méndez, pidiendo lizencia. … This provides an example of early ministerial monte practice.

21 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, royal cédula, San Ildefonso, 9 August 1779; Fonseca and Urrutia VI: 142–43. This decree was probably the fruit of the Mexican experience of José de Gálvez.

22 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, Testimonio del expediente sobre lizencias de casamientos en la renta del tabaco; y de otros varios administradores de R.s alcavalas. This paragraph and the two following are based on this document.

23 There was over 17,000 tobacco employees near the end of the century, although a number received salaries too low to qualify for membership in the monte de oficinas (below 400 pesos a year). Maniau, Joaquin (ed. by Carreño, Alberto M.), Compendio de la historia de la real hacienda de Nueva España escrito en el año de 1794 (Mexico: Secretaría de Industria y Comercio, 1914), pp. 50–51.Google Scholar

24 Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico (hereinafter BN), Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1362, ff. 188–91, royal cédula, San Ildefonso, 29 August 1790.

25 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, Testimonio del expediente sobre lizencias de casamientos en la renta del tabaco; y de otros varios administradores de R.s alcavalas; also BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1366, ff. 69–79; vol. 1367, ff. 27–29, 212–17.

26 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1814. The king refused licenses to alcalde del crimen-designate of the Audiencia of Mexico Juan Francisco de Anda and to Alonso Rodríguez de Ovalle, oficial real of Bolaños, in 1780 and 1782 respectively. The requests were vaguely worded and could have applied to locally born women. The king told the Council that he did not want such requests forwarded as he wished to observe the marriage laws. On 16 June 1782 the Council reprimanded the intendant of Buenos Aires for allowing contador mayor José Antonio Hurtado to marry a local woman; the intendant was confused over the laws.

27 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1815. On II August 1786 the Crown issued a license to oidor of Buenos Aires Tomás Ignacio Palomequc; if the woman was locally born, however, Palomeque was required to accept a transfer, which he did. For several other examples see Burkholder and Chandler, part Two.

28 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, ministerial monte to the king, Mexico, 3 August 1787, noting forgiveness granted to Miguel Sánchez Méndez for marriage without a license; Indiferente, legajo 1814, José de Gálvez to the regent of the Audiencia of Mexico, reveals a license allowing Vicente de Herrera y Rivero to marry (with viceregal approval) any woman of his choice, an individual exemption not to be cited as a precedent. On 28 April 1782 Gálvez approved the viceroy's license allowing chief accountant of the tobacco monopoly Silvestre Diaz de la Vega to marry without royal license as the war had interrupted communications.

29 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1814, Ciriaco González Carvajal to José de Gálvez, Manila, 5 January ¡787.

30 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1815, royal order to the montepío of New Granada, 29 October 1787.

31 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1366, ff. 58–302v; vol. 1367, ff. 1–334 for this and the following five paragraphs. During the seventy-three months covered by the minutes, the protectors made license decisions at the rate of 1.61 a month. The agency granted seven licenses in October 1786, the busiest month.

32 AGI, Cuba, legajo 598. Circular order of the monte de oficinas, Mexico, 17 July 1789.

33 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1364, ff. 105–115v.

34 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1364, ff. 116–126v.

35 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1364, ff. 64–64v, 66–67v, 90–100.

36 The timing was perhaps fortunate for the monte. In October 1787 the Crown returned to the viceroy the additional duty of superintendency of the treasury. Had that office still been held by a separate superintendent in 1788, the ruling might have gone against the monte.

37 What the monte dealt with here was what Anglo-American jurisprudence would call “common-law marriages,” not transitory liaisons.

38 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1364, ff. 4–46.

39 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1815, royal order of 21 February 1789.

40 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1367, ff. 273–80.

41 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1367, ff. 295–300v.

42 Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico (hereinafter AGN), Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 9, exp. 1. La junta de oficinas solicitando se declare si a éste deve comprender la Rl orn que prev.e no tengan dro. a pension las mugeres que se casen con empleados que hayan cumplido 60 años de edad; AGI, Ultramar, legajo 856, King to Viceroy of New Spain, Aranjuez, 26 June 1790.

43 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1367, ff. 323–325v.

44 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 855, royal order, Madrid, 13 July 1789; legajo 863, royal order, 21 March 1817; Intendant of Puerto Rico to the King, Puerto Rico, 15 December 1817.

45 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1367. ff. 318–322.

46 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1362, ff. 188–191, royal cédula, San Ildefonso, 29 August 1790. The founding of the monte de oficinas in 1784 had obviated the issue for its members.

47 AGN, Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 14, exp. 7, El administrador de alcavalas de Tasco pide licencia para casarse.

48 BN, Colección de Reales Cédulas, vol. 1362, ff. 188–191.

49 AGN, Ramo de Civil, vol. 1389, exp. 8, Real Orden concediendo a los SS. Virreyes de Indias la facultad de dar licencias a ministros subalternos p.a casarse; Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 6, exp. 21, El director g.l de aduanas remite instancia del cabo de resguardo de la de Tlaxcala dn Ger.mo Salazar, en que solicita licencia p.a casarse; Ramo de Matrimonios, vol. 39, exp. 25, licencia p.a casarse a d Joseph Ant.o Pescador cont.or de rezagos juvilado, concedida por el sr Int.e de Yucatán.

50 AGN, Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 14, exp. 37, El oficial de guias de la aduana de esta capital dn Josef Tercero de Rozas sre. lie.a para casarse.

51 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 863, royaf order, 21 March 1817.

52 AGN, Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 6, exp. 20; vol. 14, exp. 7, 8, 23, 40.

53 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1818, Denial of marriage license to the civil fiscal of the Audiencia of Guadalajara, Juan Fernández de Muntila, to marry the daughter of the contador of the reales cajas there, Aranjuez, 18 May 1804; King to the viceroy of Peru, 26 November 1804, cautioning the executive not to allow ex-oidor of Lima Lucas Múñoz Cubero to marry a local woman until he had taken up his new post as regent of the Audiencia of Buenos Aires; King to the viceroy of New Granada, 11 September 1805, approving marriage permit for Manuel de Blaya; for other examples see Burkholder and Chandler, pp. 110–14. See legajo 1816 for denial of permit to oidor of Mexico Luis Chávez y Mendoza to marry Jacinta Josefa de Fagoaga. She was not a native of Mexico but was extremely well-connected to one of the wealthiest families of the kingdom. On 17 October 1791 the king refused to grant a license to Francisco Ignacio González Maldonado of the Audiencia of Mexico to marry a local woman. See AGN, Ramo de Matrimonios, vol. 45, exp. 15, D. Antonio Tamiriz, Min.tro tesorero de la caja de Campeche solicitando licencia para casarse, for another example of concern over marriage of treasury officials to locally born women.

54 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1817, José Antonio Caballero to Viceroy Azanza, Madrid, 20 July 1799; Viceroy Azanza to Caballero, Mexico, January 1800.

55 AGI, Indiferente, legajo 1818, King to Pascual Castaño, 26 January 1801 and 6 May 1804; King to viceroy of New Spain, 19 February 1804.

56 Alamán, Lucas Historia de Méjico, 5 vols. (Mexico: Editorial Jus, 1968–1972), 1: 195.Google Scholar

57 AGN, Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 6, exp 14, Ministerial monte to the viceroy of New Spain, Mexico, 6 November 1792.

58 AGN, Ramo de Montepíos, vol. 6, exp. 20–23, 25, 27, 28; vol. 14, exp. 1, 3–5, 10–15, 21, 23–25, 29, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43.

59 The pattern of requests over the twenty-three months closely resembles that of 1784–1790. The average number of requests considered per month was 1.60 compared to 1.61 in the earlier era. The tobacco ramo accounted for 40% in 1792–1793 and about 33% in the earlier period. The sales tax agency was next with 32% compared to 27% earlier. A number of different agencies provided the remainder but again the royal mint was third.

60 New marriage laws notwithstanding, the more centralized policies never touched certain members of the monte for subordinates. Only men occupying fiscally sensitive positions—accountants, collectors, treasurers, administrators and the like—fell under the sway of the new laws. Others could still marry locally born women. At least nine of the cases in 1792–1793 involved office clerks, scribes, night-watchmen and others unaffected by the ban against local marriage. At least two of them married locally-born women with the viceroy’s blessing.

61 AGN, Ramo de Matrimonios, vol. 39, exp. 1–24, 26–31; vol. 45, exp. 1–5, 7–12, 14, 16, and 19; also, AGI, Cuba, legajo 598.

62 In the period 1800–1802 the viceroy and monte de oficinas considered marriage license requests at the rate of about 1.35 per month, slightly lower than during the earlier periods. This difference may represent reality or the limitations of the data. In the case, the pattern is similar to the earlier periods. The tobacco ramo provided twenty-one (over 45%) of the requests, alcabalas thirteen (28%), and the royal mint led the eight remaining sources with four requests.

63 AGN, Ramo de Matrimonios, vol. 39, exp. 12. Carlos IV issued an order on 19 February 1794 recognizing expuestas (abandoned infants) as fit for all normal civil activities including royal service, in effect granting not only legitimacy but a measure of hidalguía to those who appeared Spanish in ancestry and upbringing.

64 AGI, Ultramar, legajo 863, Royal Order of 21 March 1817; Intendant of Puerto Rico to the King, Puerto Rico, 15 December 1817.