Quito’s royal officials under suspicion: the non-payment of the situado and the proposal of an inspection of the Caja (1712-1718)

Abstract

Until 1712 the royal treasury in Quito regularly fulfilled its obligation to send the situado (annual subsidy) to the fortresses at Cartagena and Santa Marta. From that date onwards, the royal officials faced great difficulties in trying to do their job and they wrote to the king in the hope that, in view of the general economic crisis that the region was suffering, he would free them from such a heavy burden. In Spain, the Council of the Indies analyzed the arguments and the accounts presented by Quito’s royal officials, and not only excused them from sending the situado, but concluded that an urgent visit to that city’s treasury was needed. In the end, however, no inspection was carried out.