Negociar la ciudad. Procuradores de la gobernación de Guatemala en el Consejo de Indias, 1531-1540

Abstract

In this article, we study how the procuradores of the municipalities assigned to the government of Guatemala reflect the transit of their cabildos from a set of encomenderos with particular interests to cities with strategic resources for global trade. The purpose is to explain the complexity of the negotiations of these attorneys and their relationship with their representatives. The hypothesis is that the type of salary, the character of its local links and the opportunity for new, although risky, global relations, constrained the exercise of procurement. We examine three types of proxies: local agents who requested benefits for themselves as encomenderos; a local agent who exercised effective corporate representation at the regional level in exchange for encomiendas; and the business agent and the procurador de pobres of the Council of the Indies who received gold in exchange for his solicitation.

Keywords

• procuradores
• business agent
• Santiago de Guatemala
• Ciudad Real de Chiapa
• border cities