The Networks of Patronage in the Global Spanish Empire

In recent years, scholars have begun to acknowledge the centrality of the patronage system in the configuration and government of the Spanish empire. It has become evident that the patron-client relations were, perhaps, the most important mechanism that kept the empire together and made possible the preservation of the social order and the performance of the king’s authority. The personal ties of loyalty, based upon ideals of service, gratitude, as well as magnificence and gift giving were the essence of a hierarchical political system conceived as a political body with the king at the center, as its head.

 Nonetheless, most of the studies focus on concrete and well-defined geographical areas and thus have a very local perspective. The dense networks do not seem to have any connections with the rest of the empire. Furthermore, although it is accepted that outsiders, such as the constantly moving imperial officials, were quick to integrate or even to create their own local networks, it is seldom explained the mechanisms that made it possible for people with little or no experience and knowledge of a given society to engage in very complicated local networks.

 In this paper I will examine the cases of the marquis of Villagarcía, who in 1657 was appointed president of the Audience of Las Charcas (in current-day Bolivia), and of Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, who served of governor of the Philippines from 1635 to 1644, to discuss how, from an imperial and global perspective, the networks of patronage were constituted, worked, and impacted on the mobility of the imperial officials. These personal networks—very much constructed upon kinship and local community ties—swiftly transcended the local frontiers and became global in range and embedded within the imperial networks of royal service and patronage, allowing for a consolidation of the king’s authority.