Control Over Administration, Repression of Corruption and Practices of Negotiation in the Spanish Monarchy. The Process of Residencia at the 10th Count of Lemos, Viceroy of Peru (1667-1672)

Abstract

The debate around the definition of the political nature of the Spanish Monarchy in the modern age has widened its scope in recent years to include not only reflections on the relationships between the Court and the diverse territorial elements that made itup but also the various forms that “remote government” took from at various times. The success of a polycentric model, and the awareness of the parts played by a wide range of actors, communities and institutions at local level and in the broader international environment, have brought up some key questions with reference to the pivotal role of the transition from a theoretical model of administration, management and control to its practical variation. Taking this important and solid mass of studies as a starting point, here we focus on the function carried out by the processual practices that involved the King’s ministers, as seen not – or not chiefly – as efficient means of control or correction of illicit actions, but mainly as moments in which the working mechanisms of the Monarchy were put to the test, and each cog could assume a new position to better respond to the fluidity of balances