Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution

Four: Circuits of Information: Reports from the New World

four Circuits of Information reports from the new world Around 1533 Charles V made the following request to his officials in New Spain: Because we want to have complete information about the things of that land and its qualities, I order you, after having received this one [royal decree], to make a long and particular report on the greatness of that land covering its width as well as its length, and about its limits. You should write very specifically its proper names and how its boundaries are delimited and marked. Likewise, [make a report] about the qualities of the land and its wonders, particularly those of each town, and what types of native people are there, writing in particular about their rites and customs.1 The Spanish encounter with the New World not only fostered the development of empirical and collaborative practices to exploit, study, transform , and explore the New World but also shaped the methods used by the central state to control distant resources and lands. In particular, the crown demanded reports about the New World and came up with new mechanisms for gathering and organizing information based on those reports. Throughout the sixteenth century the royal bureaucracy periodically requested information about the natural world of the Indies. These requests began as general inquiries about nature but over the years became very specific tools of inquiry that included precise specifications for how questions were to be answered. This knowledge emerged from reports 82 experiencing nature sent from the New World and organized at the Casa de la Contratación and Council of Indies in Spain, and it enabled the crown to have maximum control over and maximum benefit from its American possessions.2 Eventually the crown developed its own questionnaires for gathering information about the New World. These questionnaires became increasingly systematic, and by the 1570s the crown sent a printed questionnaire to the New World. From the late 1570s to the early 1580s the crown used these answers to gain an exhaustive body of knowledge about the Indies. The resulting reports are known as the Relaciones geográficas de Indias or, better, the Relaciones de Indias.3 During a period of about seventy years, the diffuse elements of an empirical culture came together to create unified mechanisms for gathering information and acquiring knowledge about the New World. The newly acquired knowledge depended not on traditional classical accounts of nature but on the kinds of observation and information developed in response to a bureaucratic and commercial problem: the long-distance management of natural resources. The administration and domination of America forced the Spanish state to develop efficient ways to organize its imperial functions. In Weberian terms, the organization of the state with regard to specialized personnel as well as information collection was connected, in Spain’s case, to its empire.4 Perhaps, as the historian José Antonio Maravall argues, the empire contributed to the decline of the Spanish state. Still, in the beginning the empire fostered the creation of the central state, and together with it came the context of social values that advanced empirical practices.5 an informal research project The Relaciones geográficas de Indias were the culmination of a long and unsystematic state-supported process of collecting information. From Ferdinand and Isabella to Philip II, the Spanish kings requested increasingly more information about their American possessions.6 A good example of this type of information-gathering is the encomienda—the labor grant of indigenous American people to a Spanish colonist. To establish encomiendas, the crown requested descriptions and pinturas (drawings) of the land, descriptions of the population, census data, and the classification of taxable goods. Every time an encomienda changed hands, the crown requested new information. The Spanish crown used this infor- Circuits of Information 83 mation to introduce reforms, to make changes in tribute policy, and to design other new policies.7 The information-gathering associated with encomiendas and many other political ventures was informal, but it was connected with the already institutionalized project of geography and hydrography information -gathering at the Casa de la Contratación. Empirical informationgathering practices had their informal beginnings before 1520 and emerged as a result of numerous decisions and pursuits developed in the first years of activity in the New World. In those early years, no one had specific knowledge about the New World or the natural resources...