Su majestad quiere saber. Información oficial y reformismo borbónico: el mundo andino bajo la mirada de la ilustración

Abstract

The study analyses the process of gathering bureaucratic information requested by the Spanish Crown from its American possessions during the last decades of the eighteenth century. The Spanish Monarchy required information on a number of topics induding: customs, production, population, incomes, and parishes. This study scrutinizes the specific manner in which the royal order was complied with in the Andean region. The research focuses on the social, political, and cultural conditions that mediated the process of information gathering. The essay underlines the difference between the enlightened reformíst premises that guided the aims of the Spanish Monarchy on the one hand, and the various reactions from the colonial bureaucracy and local Andean societies, on the other hand.