{ "id": "derechos-y-conducta-de-los-escribanos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion", "type": "entity", "name": "What the Casa de Contratación's notaries could charge and how they had to behave: eleven laws on fees, receipts and the integrity of the register — libro VIIII título X, leyes x and xiiij to xxiij", "summary": "Eleven laws govern the money and the conduct of the Casa de Contratación's notaries: nothing for drafting a process or carrying it to counsel, on pain of sevenfold restitution; eight maravedís a signature on a register entry; fees taken in person and written into the file with a statement that no more was taken; nothing for a notification at the fiscal's instance; no advocacy in a case you write; and a goods certificate carrying a relación of every deed in the register touching it.", "locale": "en", "tags": [ "colonial-law", "law-of-the-indies", "legislation", "legal-history", "recopilacion", "casa-de-contratacion", "notaries", "fees", "corruption", "accountability", "record-keeping", "archives", "documents", "courts", "procedure", "legal-profession", "seville", "carrera-de-indias", "spanish-empire", "sixteenth-century", "seventeenth-century" ], "relations": [ { "rel": "related", "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "casa-de-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "escribanos-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "examen-y-etica-de-los-abogados-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "piloto-mayor-y-cosmografos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "juzgado-de-bienes-de-difuntos" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "bienes-de-difuntos-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "salarios-de-los-ministros-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "ordenanzas-del-archivo-general-de-indias-1790" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "escribanos-de-camara-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "repartidor-de-pleytos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "arancel-de-los-escribanos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion-1678" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "examen-de-pilotos-y-maestres-de-la-carrera-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "despacho-y-derechos-de-los-correos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "contaduria-de-averias-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "libros-y-papeles-de-la-contaduria-de-averias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "ministros-y-solicitadores-pagados-por-la-averia" } ], "questions": [ "Could a notary of the Casa de Contratación charge for drafting a lawsuit or taking it to a lawyer?", "What did it cost to have a register entry of the Indies trade signed?", "Could the notary who wrote a case also act for one of the parties in it?", "Did the crown pay the notaries' fees in its own cases at the Casa de Contratación?", "What had to appear on a certificate of a dead man's goods shipped from the Indies?" ], "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "Eleven of the twenty-four laws of this título are about what the Casa's notaries might take and how they had to conduct themselves, and they sit between the laws that constitute the office and the arancel that prices it. In the fourth impression, printed at Madrid in 1791 by the widow of Joaquín Ibarra for the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, libro VIIII título X \"DE LOS ESCRIBANOS DE CÁMARA, Y OTROS Escribanos, y Repartidor de la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla\" carries ley x and leyes xiiij to xxiij on the printed folios 122, 123 and 124. Their dated margins run from 1561 to 1617; five of the eleven — leyes xiiij, xv, xviij, xxj and xxij — carry no date at all, only an ordinance number of the Casa.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c2", "text": "The hardest rule in the group is the one that gives the drafting away free. Ley xv, from the Emperor Charles and the Prince Governor at ordinance 74 of the Casa, orders that the notaries \"y sus Escribientes no lleven cosa alguna por ordenar los Procesos, ni llevarlos á los Abogados de las partes, pena de pagarlo con las setenas\". Putting the file in order and carrying it to the party's counsel are made unpayable rather than capped, the prohibition reaches the notary's clerks as well as the notary, and the penalty is the sevenfold setenas of Castilian law rather than the fourfold restitution the other fee laws of this título impose.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c3", "text": "A single named charge is capped at eight maravedís, and the law attaches it to the moment the merchant collects. Ley xvj, carried in the margin to Philip II in the year 1580 at ordinance 12 of the Licenciado Gamboa, provides that in the satisfaction the accountant's clerk enters in the margin of the registers when the parties receive their consignments, the notaries take no more than \"ocho maravedís de cada firma, so las penas en que incurren los que llevan derechos demasiados\". A signature in the margin of the register of a returning fleet costs eight maravedís and no more.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c4", "text": "Two laws govern how the money is taken rather than how much, and they are the ones that make the file audit itself. Ley xviij, from ordinance 76 of the Casa, requires the escribanos de cámara to receive their fees in person or through one deputed clerk, \"y si en otra forma los cobraren, sean habidos por derechos mal llevados, aunque verdaderamente sean debidos\" — money lawfully owed becomes unlawfully taken if it passes through the wrong hand — and then requires them to \"pongan recibo en los Procesos de la cantidad recibida, y expresen, que no recibiéron mas\". The receipt goes into the case file itself, and it must assert a negative.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c5", "text": "The crown's own side of the court is exempted from paying, and the exemption is enforced on the notary rather than claimed by the treasury. Ley xx, from Philip II at Madrid on 19 August 1592, requires the President and Judges to oblige and compel the Casa's notaries to make the notifications that arise, \"y de las que se hicieren por el Fisco no lleven derechos, y sean culpados si no lo cumplieren\". Service of process at the instance of the fiscal side is done for nothing, and a notary who declines is culpable.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c6", "text": "The notary is barred from acting for a party in a case he writes, and three officers are named to enforce it. Ley xviiij, from Philip II at Madrid on 13 July 1561, orders that the Casa's notaries \"no aboguen, ni hagan Peticiones, y Escrituras en los pleytos que ante ellos pasaren: y el Presidente, y Jueces castiguen á los culpados; y el Fiscal los acuse, y siga las causas\". The separation of the recording officer from the advocate is stated as a rule and then given a prosecutor: the fiscal is to accuse and to carry the cases through.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c7", "text": "Two laws make a certificate of goods carry the whole of its own file with it, and one of them protects the man who is not there. Ley xxj, from the Emperor Charles and the Prince Governor at ordinance 114 of the Casa, requires that when a certificate of a consignment of the goods of the living or the dead is issued at a party's request, there be put in it \"relacion de todas las Escrituras que vienen en el mismo registro, tocantes á aquella partida, para que conste al Juez que lo hubiere de sentenciar, si falta alguna Escritura\", and that the notary read the certificate when he settles the process and recover and add any deed it shows to be missing, \"pena de dos mil maravedís cada vez que no lo hiciere, y satisfacer el daño á las partes\". Ley xxij, from the same ordinance, requires the notary who extracts a consignment from a register to note in the register itself that it has been extracted, at whose request, and \"si se dió á otras personas, y quantas veces\". The judge is to be able to see what is missing, and the register is to show who has been reading it.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c8", "text": "Two laws attach the notary to work outside his own office. Ley x, from Philip II at Madrid on 5 December 1564, requires that when masters or pilots of the Carrera ask the Casa's notaries for an attestation it be given \"sin dilacion en pública forma, que haga fe, pagando primeramente los derechos, que justamente se debieren\" — promptness owed to the seafarer, with payment first. Ley xvij, from Philip II at Madrid on 15 May 1564 and Philip III at Valladolid on 2 June 1604, sends one of the escribanos de cámara by turn with the Juez Oficial who goes to inspect at Sanlúcar or Cádiz, \"y si se excusare sin causa legítima, le obligue el Presidente de la Casa\". The duty rotates, and excusing yourself without legitimate cause is not an option the law leaves open.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c9", "text": "One law hands the accountants of the Avería a direct claim on the notaries' papers. Ley xxiij, from Philip III at Madrid on 17 June and at San Lorenzo on 3 October 1614, and at Barcelona on 27 October 1617, orders the escribanos de cámara to comply with the acts and warrants issued by the Contadores de Avería so as to give them \"testimonios, papeles, y otros qualesquier recaudos que pidieren, en qualquier forma concernientes á la averiguacion, y comprobacion de las cuentas\". The audit of the convoy levy is given a right to the court's records that does not pass through the court.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c10", "text": "One law caps a fee by pointing at a document the título does not print. Ley xiiij, from ordinance 71 of the Casa, allows the notaries to take, for the informations pilots and masters make in order to be examined and for attending the taking of the votes and the examination itself, \"los derechos conforme al último Arancel, y no mas, precediendo tasacion de un Juez Oficial, pena del quatro tanto\". Three things are stacked: a tariff by cross-reference, a prior taxation by a judge before the money may be taken, and a quadruple penalty. But the \"último Arancel\" it points to is not the arancel printed at the end of this título, which is of 1678 and later than this law, and the código does not say which arancel is meant.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c11", "text": "What a flattering account of these laws would leave out, and the leaves do not. Each of them prohibits something specific enough to have been happening, and read as a list of prohibitions it is also a list of what the Casa's notaries were doing: charging for drafting and for walking the file to counsel, charging more than eight maravedís for a signature, collecting through third parties, taking fees from the fiscal side, acting as advocates in their own cases, issuing certificates that omitted the deeds which would have shown the gap, letting consignments be copied without a trace, and refusing the Avería's accountants their papers. A código that has to compel a notary to annotate his own register is describing a register that was not being annotated. The dates make the point without comment: ley xviiij of 1561 forbids advocacy, and thirty-one years later ley xx of 1592 is still having to compel the same office to serve process at all.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.8 }, { "id": "c12", "text": "What this entry does not establish. It reads eleven laws of one título in one impression and says nothing about practice: whether any notary in fact paid the setenas of ley xv, whether the eight maravedís of ley xvj was observed, whether the Sanlúcar turn of ley xvij was kept, whether any notary was prosecuted by the fiscal under ley xviiij, or what proportion of the Casa's certificates in fact carried the relación of deeds ley xxj requires. The ordinances of the Casa cited in the margins — 71, 74, 76 and 114 — and ordinance 12 of the Licenciado Gamboa of 1580 were not opened and nothing is asserted about their texts or about who Gamboa was beyond the name the margin prints. Which arancel ley xiiij means by its \"último Arancel\" is not determined. The dates in the margins are the dates as this impression prints them and were not collated against the 1681 first impression, which this corpus also holds.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-x-derechos-y-conducta" ], "confidence": 0.9 } ], "takeaways": [], "faqs": [], "evidence_tier": "primary", "evidence": { "level": "industry_observation", "source_types": [ "paper" ] }, "moat_flag": true, "winning_edge": "Notarial fees in the Spanish empire are usually summarised in one direction — offices were sold and holders recouped the price from litigants — and the rules written against that are summarised away with them. These eleven laws, read from the leaf and quoted at claim level, are more specific and more awkward than either a defence or an indictment of the system: drafting a process and carrying it to counsel are unpayable on pain of sevenfold restitution; a signature in the margin of a returning fleet's register is capped at eight maravedís; fees lawfully owed become unlawfully taken if collected through the wrong hand; the receipt must go into the case file and state that no more was received; the notary who writes a case may not plead in it, and the fiscal is named to prosecute him if he does; a certificate of a dead man's goods must list every deed in the register touching it so that the judge can see what is missing; and the register must record who has copied a consignment and how often. This entry prints beside those the reading that makes them credible: each is written against a practice, so the list of rules is also a list of abuses, and a crown still compelling its notaries to serve process in 1592 had not solved what it legislated against in 1561.", "confidence": 0.85, "last_verified": "2026-10-25", "media": [], "x": {}, "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/derechos-y-conducta-de-los-escribanos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion", "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/derechos-y-conducta-de-los-escribanos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion.json", "jsonld": { "@context": "https://schema.org", "name": "What the Casa de Contratación's notaries could charge and how they had to behave: eleven laws on fees, receipts and the integrity of the register — libro VIIII título X, leyes x and xiiij to xxiij", "description": "Eleven laws govern the money and the conduct of the Casa de Contratación's notaries: nothing for drafting a process or carrying it to counsel, on pain of sevenfold restitution; eight maravedís a signature on a register entry; fees taken in person and written into the file with a statement that no more was taken; nothing for a notification at the fiscal's instance; no advocacy in a case you write; and a goods certificate carrying a relación of every deed in the register touching it.", "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/derechos-y-conducta-de-los-escribanos-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion", "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html", "dateModified": "2026-10-25", "citation": [ { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, libro VIIII título X \"DE LOS ESCRIBANOS DE CÁMARA, Y OTROS Escribanos, y Repartidor de la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla\" — leyes x and xiiij to xxiij whole, on what the Casa's notaries might charge and how they were to behave, read on the printed folios 122, 123 and 124. Ley x, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de la Casa dén á los Maestres, y Pilotos con brevedad los testimonios que les pidieren\", margin \"D. Felipe II en Madrid á 5 de Diciembre de 1564\", whose text reads \"QUando por parte de los Maestres, y Pilotos de la Carrera, ó alguno de ellos, se pidiere fe, ó testimonio á los Escribanos, ó Escribano de la Casa: Mandamos que la dén sin dilacion en pública forma, que haga fe, pagando primeramente los derechos, que justamente se debieren.\" Ley xiiij, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de la Casa lleven de las informaciones de Pilotos para el exâmen, los derechos conforme al Arancel\", margin \"El Emperador D. Cárlos, y el Príncipe Gobernador Ordenanza 71. de la Casa\", whose text reads \"LOS Escribanos de la Casa lleven de las informaciones, que hacen los Pilotos, y Maestres para ser exâminados, y asímismo por asistir á tomar los votos, y al exâmen, los derechos conforme al último Arancel, y no mas, precediendo tasacion de un Juez Oficial, pena del quatro tanto.\" Ley xv, rubric \"Que los Escribanos, y Escribientes no lleven derechos por ordenar los Procesos, ni por llevarlos á los Abogados\", margin \"El Emperador D. Cárlos, y el Príncipe Gobernador allí Ordenanza 74\", whose text reads \"LOS Escribanos, y sus Escribientes no lleven cosa alguna por ordenar los Procesos, ni llevarlos á los Abogados de las partes, pena de pagarlo con las setenas.\" Ley xvj, rubric \"Que por firmar las partidas de registro lleven los Escribanos ocho maravedís de cada firma\", margin \"D. Felipe II año de 1580. Ordenanza 12. del Licenciado Gamboa\", whose text reads \"EN la satisfaccion que pone el Oficial de Contador al márgen de los Registros, quando las partes reciben las partidas, no lleven los Escribanos por sus derechos mas de ocho maravedís de cada firma, so las penas en que incurren los que llevan derechos demasiados.\" Ley xvij, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de la Casa vayan á Sanlúcar con los Visitadores, por su turno\", margin \"El mismo en Madrid á 15 de Mayo de 1564. D. Felipe III en Valladolid á 2 de Junio de 1604\", whose text reads \"MAndamos que por su turno vaya uno de los Escribanos de Cámara de la Casa con el Juez Oficial, que fuere á hacer la visita á Sanlúcar, ó Cádiz; y si se excusare sin causa legítima, le obligue el Presidente de la Casa.\" Ley xviij, rubric \"Que reciban los Escribanos los derechos de las partes, por sí, ó por sus Oficiales, y no por otra persona\", margin \"El Emperador D. Cárlos, y el Príncipe Gobernador Ordenanza 76. de la Casa\", whose text reads \"LOS Escribanos de Cámara reciban los derechos por sus personas, ó algun Oficial suyo, diputado para esto; y si en otra forma los cobraren, sean habidos por derechos mal llevados, aunque verdaderamente sean debidos, y pongan recibo en los Procesos de la cantidad recibida, y expresen, que no recibiéron mas.\" Ley xviiij, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de la Casa no hagan Peticiones, ni Escrituras en pleytos que ante ellos pasaren\", margin \"D. Felipe II en Madrid á 13 de Julio de 1561\", whose text reads \"ORdenamos que los Escribanos de la Casa no aboguen, ni hagan Peticiones, y Escrituras en los pleytos que ante ellos pasaren: y el Presidente, y Jueces castiguen á los culpados; y el Fiscal los acuse, y siga las causas.\" Ley xx, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de la Casa hagan las notificaciones, y por las del Fisco no lleven derechos\", margin \"El mismo allí á 19 de Agosto de 1592\", whose text reads \"EL Presidente, y Jueces obliguen, y apremien á los Escribanos de la Casa á que hagan las notificaciones que se ofrecieren, y de las que se hicieren por el Fisco no lleven derechos, y sean culpados si no lo cumplieren.\" Ley xxj, rubric \"Que quando se sacare fe de partida de bienes de vivos, ó difuntos se ponga en ella relacion de las Escrituras que vienen en el registro\", margin \"El Emperador D. Cárlos, y el Príncipe Gobernador allí Ordenanza 114\", whose text reads \"SI á pedimento de parte se sacare alguna fe de partida de bienes de vivos, ó difuntos, póngase en ella relacion de todas las Escrituras que vienen en el mismo registro, tocantes á aquella partida, para que conste al Juez que lo hubiere de sentenciar, si falta alguna Escritura, que pertenezca á aquel negocio, y el Escribano, quando concertare el Proceso, tenga cuidado de leer la fe: y si por ella constare, que haya escrituras, las cobre, y ponga en el proceso, pena de dos mil maravedís cada vez que no lo hiciere, y satisfacer el daño á las partes.\" Ley xxij, rubric \"Que quando se sacare partida de registro, se ponga en él, que está sacada, y quantas veces, y á cuyo pedimento\", margin \"El Emperador D. Cárlos, y el Príncipe Gobernador allí Ordenanza 114\", whose text reads \"QUando se sacare alguna partida de registro, el Escribano ponga en él, que está sacada, y á cuyo pedimento, y si se dió á otras personas, y quantas veces.\" Ley xxiij, rubric \"Que los Escribanos de Cámara cumplan los Autos, y Mandamientos de los Contadores de Avería\", margin \"D. Felipe III en Madrid á 17 de Junio, en San Lorenzo á 3 de Octubre de 1614. En Barcelona á 27 de Octubre de 1617\", whose text reads \"LOS Escribanos de Cámara cumplan los Autos, y Mandamientos que los Contadores de Avería proveyeren, y despacharen, para que les dén testimonios, papeles, y otros qualesquier recaudos que pidieren, en qualquier forma concernientes á la averiguacion, y comprobacion de las cuentas, y lo demas que fuere á su cargo, segun está ordenado.\"", "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=t5EbF6Y1EM4C&pg=PA123" } ], "@type": "Article", "headline": "What the Casa de Contratación's notaries could charge and how they had to behave: eleven laws on fees, receipts and the integrity of the register — libro VIIII título X, leyes x and xiiij to xxiij" } }