Memoria sobre el Nuevo Reino de Granada, 1803. A Report Concerning the Viceroyalty of New Granada (review)

This book is a printed version of the Memoria (report) on conditions in the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada (which comprised modern-day Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela) composed by Pedro Mendinueta, the viceroy from 1797-1803. Such reports, a requirement of viceroys as they left their post, offer details about local conditions, new projects, and recommendations for improvements. John Leiby provides a Preface and footnotes in English while the text remains in the original Spanish. Scholars interested in colonial administration and conditions on the eve of Spanish American independence will find this report fascinating.

The Memoria is divided into four parts: Church, Justice, Treasury, and Military. Mendinueta portrays a region that, despite the occasional minor uprising, enjoys considerable peace and prosperity. With an estimated two million inhabitants, the viceroyalty sees rising wealth from agriculture and mining, robust commercial activity, and enough security so that travelers and the mail can cross the land unhindered. At the same time, Mendinueta details the challenges posed in administering a region in which the territory is so vast, and the population so small, that there are never enough churches, tribunals, or functionaries. His administration is beset with such varied problems as urban street crime, plagues, inadequate sanitation, beggars, hostile native peoples, and insufficient university funding. He also depicts the difficulties facing a colonial official at the end of Spain's imperial grandeur; the metropolis clearly lacks the resources both to fight in the Napoleonic Wars and to administer her colonies effectively. The viceroy complains of the military inadequacies that prevent him from defending against a potential British invasion and from clearing away the enemy's navy. The wars had hampered legal maritime commerce, fostered smuggling, and prevented the viceroy from sending stockpiles of bullion to the metropolis. Indeed, the local militias represent the strongest facet of the military, so that the Americans must rely principally on themselves, not Spain, for their defense.