The Politics of Giving in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata: Donors, Lenders, Subjects, and Citizens

Part Two: Redistribution of Power and Income at the Viceregal Level

55 part two redistribution of power and income at the viceregal level In this section, I analyze donativos and loans collected in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata at the territorial or viceregal level. The crown requested the financial support of the Rioplatense subjects first during the War against the French Convention (1793–1795) and for a second time during the Naval Wars against England (1799–1801). In the three chapters that follow, I argue that through these devices the monarch distributed wealth and power among different regionsandsocialgroups.Attheviceregallevel,incomedistributionbenefited prominent imperial groups such as merchants, merchant-bankers, and bureaucrats, which through corporate representation obtained a variety of rewards from the crown in exchange for their financial support . Groups lacking corporate representation contributed donativos as well. Following the principles of distributive justice, however, they accessed fewer and lesser compensations or, in many cases, none at all. Finally, distribution patterns were not fixed but rather changed over time. My analysis of these two collections of donativos additionally addresses the monarch’s changing political agenda, his regulatory power, and his capacity for taking political initiative. Since Spanish kings prioritized the interests of those subjects instrumental to achieving their own imperial aims, the rewards they granted did not always favor the same groups or individuals. By analyzing both successful and unsuccessful negotiations, I additionally weigh the relative bargaining power of different donors and lenders confronting a rapidly changing political environment. Late eighteenth-century wars impacted the Spanish empire both geopolitically and fiscally. The end of the U.S. War of Independence in 1783 marked a period of peaceful relations between Spain and England. Spain’s partnership with France (which had been renewed through the Third Family Compact of 1761) allowed the crown to focus on economic growth part two 56 and financial recovery from the 1760s to the 1780s. But in the early 1790s, as a consequence of the French Revolution, hostilities resumed. Charles IV, suspicious of the political developments in revolutionary France, courted England without breaking with France, thereby sending confusing signals to both nations. The increased radicalism spread by the French Revolution in 1792, followed by the execution of Louis XVI in 1793, forced Spain into an alliance with England against France. The War against the French Convention began in March of 1793 and continued until mid-1795, when France and Spain signed the Peace of Basle. The peace was followed by a renewed partnership against England in 1796.1 The change in alliances, although short-lived, was financially costly for Spain. In order to finance the War against the French Convention, the crown issued bonds for 74.2 million pesos and created the Fondo de Amortización to sustain their value. Additionally, it received a large ecclesiastical subsidy and collected universal donativos in both Spain and in the Americas.2 Through the Peace of Basle of 1796, the military forces of Spain and France united against England, but Spain was allowed to maintain its neutrality against other nations at war with the French. Since France and England were already at war at the time the treaty was signed, England immediately attacked Spain. The Naval Wars against England at the end of the eighteenth century (1797–1802) were militarily and financially devastating for Spain, which was still trying to recover from the War against the French Convention. During the French war, shipping was not interrupted , as the Anglo-Spanish forces were superior to the French. During the Naval Wars against England, however, the English dominance (made even more apparent during the blockade of Cádiz) interrupted trade and the flow of silver from the Americas when they were most needed. Consequently, in 1798 the crown restructured its debt by issuing the decree known as the Consolidación de Vales Reales, which affected real estate property and liquid assets owned by the nobility and clergy. In the Spanish possessions, the crown first solicited loans and collected donativos, and finally, in 1804, it enforced the Consolidación decrees. a note on the sources and the mechanisms employed to collect loans and donativos In order to assess how loans and donativos had not only financial but also social and political impacts, we need to understand the mechanisms that made possible their collection across a fragmented fiscal space as well as part two 57 the multiple transactions required to bring their yields into the royal treasuries . In the Viceroyalty of Rio de...