Who Governs? The Era of the Secretaries of State in 18th-Century Spain and Its Empire

The arrival of the Bourbons in Spain inaugurated the golden age of the secretaries of state or king’s ministers. These powerful, specialized agents of the crown revolutionized eighteen-century politics by becoming the main proponents and executors of what historians call the Bourbon Reforms, a sustained effort to modernize the administration of Spain and its empire. On behalf of the monarch, the secretaries of State (foreign affairs), War, Justice and Government (internal affairs), Navy, Indies (colonial), and Treasury centralized power in their own hands. Indeed, this process lies at the origins of cabinet formation in what would later become formalized as the executive branch of government. This group of statesmen was exceptionally diverse. It included members of the highest echelons of Spanish aristocracy, but also parvenus from poorer provincial or military backgrounds. Some of these ministers were foreigners. A handful of them, such as the famous Marqués de Ensenada, became literal “ministers of all,” concentrating in themselves almost every available secretariat. Given this diversity, it is not surprising that their offices had a complex history throughout the century, with ministries sprouting, merging, splitting, and even disappearing. While historians have acknowledged the centrality of the king’s ministers and their offices in the history of eighteenth-century Spain and its empire, most available studies focus on individual figures. This paper has three main objectives: (1) to systematize the emergence and consolidation of this type of office; 2) to conceptualize the “era of the secretaries of state” as a crucial historical development in Spanish imperial governance; 3) to explain how ministers were perceived by ordinary people in both Spain and Spanish America.