Minister and Viceroy, Paisano and Amigo: The Private Correspondence of the Marqués de la Ensenada and the Conde de Superunda, 1745–1749

In the Archivo General de Indias in Seville there exists a remarkable sample of private correspondence between two of the most powerful figures of the Bourbon Age in Spanish American history. The principal writer is Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea, marqués de la Ensenada and minister of Hacienda, War, and Indies and Marine since 1743, and subsequently holder of other posts that made him, in a contemporary opinion, “Secretary of Everything.”¹ His correspondent is José Antonio Manso de Velasco, conde de Superunda and viceroy of Peru from 1745 to 1761, the longest serving and among the most influential of the Peruvian viceroys.² The Seville correspondence consists mainly of just seven generally brief letters.³ The private character of these letters, however, along with the close relationship between the two men and the roles they occupied, makes them historically fascinating. Excerpts are published here for the first time, in both Spanish and English translation.⁴

The tone of these letters is immediately striking, suggesting an exceptionally warm relationship between minister and viceroy. They address each other in the most intimate terms, as “friend of my life” or “friend of my soul.” Ensenada signs off at times with “I remain yours always at heart”; at others, “I am and will be yours until death.” These expressions were more than mere formulae: Ensenada handled important family affairs for Superunda during the latter’s posting, and at one point offers to send him trinkets he might desire from home. Still more noteworthy is Ensenada’s repeated reference to both men’s origins in the Rioja region of northern Spain. He evokes their common status as riojanos to urge Superunda to greater efforts in his reforms in Peru and in more expedient remissions of funds to the metropolis, at one point emphasizing that “Divine Providence has placed one of us as viceroy of Peru and the other as minister for a reason.” We see comparable attitudes in Ensenada’s views beyond his relationship with Superunda. In another context, he remarks, “It was absurd to send a Guipuzcoan somewhere there were parties of Basques and Montañeses” (people from Cantabria). The intense alliance to the patria chica, or home region, has a deep tradition in Spain; here we find its blunt expression at the highest level of state affairs.

The relationship between Ensenada and Superunda lies at the heart of the significance of this documentary series. In recent research, I have sought to demonstrate how relations between ministers and viceroys affected the development of policy and reform in Peru during the early Bourbon period (broadly, the first six decades of the eighteenth century).⁵ I argue that the dynamics between ministers and viceroys—between metropolis and colony, or center and periphery—was far more fluid and, in administrative terms, “egalitarian” than traditional readings would suggest. And nowhere is this so clear as in the relationship between the marqués de la Ensenada and the conde de Superunda, with the latter taking an active and instrumental role in the shaping of policy for Peru that went far beyond simple service as an agent for its implementation. In a wide range of areas, Superunda himself designed and carried through major aspects of imperial policy for Peru, and in some cases for other regions of the empire as well.

The Seville letters provide crucial evidence for this relationship, beginning with Ensenada’s statement that he was responsible for Superunda’s appointment to Peru. In fact, Superunda was but one of a group of trusted dependents placed by Ensenada in high positions throughout the colonies.⁶ Another was Juan Francisco de Güemes y Horcasitas, first conde de Revillagigedo and viceroy of New Spain from 1746; he is referred to in the letters as “our friend Horcasitas.” Superunda is assured repeatedly of the absolute support he enjoys in Madrid, and still more crucially, that he will be furnished with whatever powers he requires to push through what I have called the “Ensenada-Manso de Velasco program for...