Xavier Chirinos: LIMARIKET: Utvecklingen av det spanska imperiets fiskala system i La Caja Matriz i Lima 1790–1820

Abstract

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, wars and political crises placed significant financial strain on the Spanish Crown’s treasuries in the Americas. This dissertation aims to create a better understanding of how the fiscal system of the Spanish Crown developed in the main state treasury, La Caja Matriz in Lima, between 1790 and 1820. It emphasizes the vital role played by royal treasuries and their accounting methods in facilitating the transfer of funds and knowledge from distant regions to the central government in Lima. This system was crucial for governing the empire’s vast and remote territories from both Madrid and Lima. 

By analyzing the accounts of La Caja Matriz and reconstructing the new accounting method introduced in 1790, this dissertation offers a nuanced and comprehensive view of the Spanish tax system in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Additionally, the study introduces a new analytical framework that provides a more dynamic understanding of the development of government finances over time. It moves beyond the traditional focus on revenues and expenditures, incorporating analysis of deficits, surpluses, residuals (restantier), and debt.

The analysis highlights how La Caja Matriz strengthened its coordinator role during wartime, becoming the central financial hub not only for other royal treasuries but also for various state and private economic entities. This coordination enabled the government in Lima to mobilize resources and centralize the political and military power, sustaining Spanish institutions during the empire’s decline in the early nineteenth century. 

Furthermore, this study challenges the assumption that deficits and low revenues in La Caja Matriz necessarily reflected weak financial capacity. Instead, these factors should be assessed in terms of the government’s ability to manage and mobilize cash flows to sustain the monarchy’s institutions across regions far from Lima. This crucial aspect has been overlooked in previous studies, which have tended to analyze La Caja Matriz as a local affair, rather than recognizing its broader imperial function beyond the Peruvian Viceroyalty. 

The state’s ability to distribute fiscal responsibilities among various royal treasuries and financial entities explains why the system continued to function, even when La Caja Matriz showed signs of deficit. In the short term, the financial balance was maintained through rationalized allocations and increased borrowing. As a result, the system endured, operating daily across a continent marked by war and institutional chaos until the middle of 1821.