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The Sale of Juros and the Politics of Reform in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1608–1695

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

During the first half of the seventeenth century the Spanish crown framed a series of administrative reforms for the Indies aimed at raising additional revenue for the overextended royal treasury. Military defeats in Flanders, Italy, and Germany between 1625 and 1650 undermined Spanish power and forced authorities in Madrid to look for new sources of revenue in their American empire. The deteriorating economic, political, and military position of Spain did not produce an attitude of ‘benign neglect’ towards the empire, but induced an intense level of government activity in Madrid to force greater financial contributions from the Indies to the beleaguered metropolis. The most successful of die new tax levies imposed in the viceroyalty of Peru was the sale of juros or state-supported annuities.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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