{
  "id": "extranjeros-compuestos-residencia-y-excepciones",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "What a compounded foreigner was allowed to be: the eight laws that let him stay, pushed him inland away from the ports, asked the governors what he did for a living, and exempted the foreign encomendero",
  "summary": "Leyes xviiij to xxvj of libro VIIII, título XXVII of the Recopilación govern the status of the foreigner who had already compounded. He is declared outside the prohibition, may reside and trade where he lives but not between Peru, New Spain and the Philippines, is to be moved inland from the maritime towns with the governors reporting on his occupation and contacts, and may not compound anywhere but where he lives. A foreign encomendero needed no composición at all. Folios 330-332.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "colonial-law",
    "law-of-the-indies",
    "legislation",
    "legal-history",
    "recopilacion",
    "governance",
    "migration",
    "citizenship",
    "trade",
    "commerce",
    "encomienda",
    "colonial-administration",
    "spanish-empire",
    "americas",
    "peru",
    "new-spain",
    "seventeenth-century"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "prohibicion-de-extranjeros-en-el-comercio-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "composicion-de-extranjeros-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "naturaleza-de-los-extranjeros-para-tratar-en-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "estrangeros-y-ausentes-en-las-encomiendas"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "encomienda"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "flotas-y-galeones-de-la-carrera-de-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "casados-de-las-indias"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "bienes-de-difuntos-de-las-indias"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "What rights did a foreigner have in the Spanish Indies after compounding?",
    "Could foreigners hold encomiendas in Spanish America?",
    "Why were foreign residents moved inland from the ports of the Indies?",
    "Could a compounded foreigner trade between Peru and New Spain?",
    "Could a foreigner leave the Spanish Indies with his property?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Having prohibited and then priced the exception, the título next says what the exception bought. In the fourth impression, printed at Madrid in 1791 by the widow of Joaquín Ibarra for the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, leyes xviiij to xxvj of libro VIIII título XXVII run from ley xviiij's heading in the right-hand column of the printed folio 330 to the end of ley xxvj at the head of the left-hand column of folio 332, where ley xxvij's heading stands below it. Both boundaries were read on the leaves. These eight laws are about the compounded foreigner: what he may do, where he must live, and who did not need to compound.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "The first thing the composición bought was legal standing, declared in plain terms. Ley xviiij, of 12 December 1619, declares that foreigners compounded under royal cédulas by those lawfully executing them \"no se incluyan en la prohibicion de Extrangeros, estando una vez compuestos, sino los que sobrevienen, y están sin órden, y licencia nuestra.\" The prohibition of ley j is redefined as a rule about the unregularised only, and ley xx adds that the compounded are not caught by later commissions issued for the same purpose. A man could pay once and not be made to pay again.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "What it did not buy was the Indies trade as a whole. Ley xx, of Philip II and of Philip III at El Pardo on 14 December 1615, lets the compounded reside and trade \"en las Provincias de su residencia\" but provides that they may not trade in Spain, \"ni los del Perú en Nueva España, ni los de Nueva España en el Perú, ni Filipinas, sino en las Provincias donde residieren\", on pain of falling back under the general prohibition. The status is local: it licenses a man where he lives and nowhere else, which leaves the inter-American and transatlantic carrying trade closed to him.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "The residence rule is a security measure stated as one. Ley xxj, of 10 December 1618 and 12 December 1619, permits the lawfully compounded to live and trade in the Indies \"donde quisieren\" — and then takes the ports back out: they may not reside \"en Lugares, y Puertos marítimos, porque esto se ha de prohibir con graves penas, procurando siempre retirarlos tierra adentro las leguas que pareciere conveniente.\" The distance is left to the officials. Read with the earlier laws of this título that confine licensed foreign traders to the port and forbid them to go up-country, the código points the same person in opposite directions depending on whether he has compounded.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "The same law builds a standing surveillance duty, and it names exactly what was to be found out. Viceroys and governors are to inform themselves \"de la ocupacion, en que se emplean, y de que correspondencias se valen, y con que personas contratan, para que con esta noticia puedan averiguar si proceden como es justo, ó exceden de su obligacion.\" Occupation, correspondence and counterparties: the compounded foreigner is lawful and watched, and the código does not pretend otherwise.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "One short law exempts a group whose existence the rest of the título would not lead you to expect. Ley xxij orders \"que no sean molestados los Extrangeros Encomenderos de Indios, cuyas Encomiendas se hubieren dado por grandes servicios, ó en casamiento, confirmadas por Nos en forma específica.\" Foreigners therefore held encomiendas over Indigenous tributaries, by royal grant for great services or in marriage settlements, with specific royal confirmation — and the Recopilación protects them from the composición commissions by name. The law does not say how many such men there were.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Ley xxij shields a holding that another line of law in the Indies restricted, and these leaves do not reconcile the two. This corpus holds a separate entry on foreigners and absentees in the encomiendas, resting on a royal cédula and a jurist's commentary that were not read here; nothing about what those texts say is asserted in this entry. What is readable here is only that ley xxij protects foreign encomenderos whose grants were confirmed \"en forma específica\", and that whether it works as a saving clause for grants already made or as a standing exception cannot be told from this título.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.75
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "Two laws stop the compounded foreigner shopping for a cheaper jurisdiction, and one of them explains why men tried. Ley xxiiij records that when composición or expulsion is in train some embark meaning to settle \"en Panamá, ó Cartagena, ó en otra parte por donde han de pasar, pareciéndoles que allí se les hará mas conveniencia, porque no hay ya tanta noticia de sus haciendas\", and orders that they be notified where they reside and have resided that no composición made elsewhere will stand. The valuation depended on local knowledge of a man's estate, so moving before being assessed was worth doing — and the law says so.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    },
    {
      "id": "c9",
      "text": "Marriage is made a condition of remaining in a port, in one sentence and with no exception. Ley xxv, of Philip III at Madrid on 28 March 1620, orders that unmarried foreigners trading and residing in the ports \"sean expelidos de las Indias\" unless they passed with a licence to trade there. Nothing in this block says the same of a married one, and read with ley xiij of the previous block, which softens the composición for men with wives, children and grandchildren, the código consistently treats a family in the country as the thing that makes a foreigner tolerable.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c10",
      "text": "The block closes with the one remedy in it that runs against the crown. Ley xxvj, of Philip II on 13 January 1596, deals with foreigners who resolve to return to Spain in conformity with the orders and who have thereby \"incurrido en perdimiento\" of the estate they acquired in those ports and provinces: the audiencias, governors and justices are to do justice, and \"los Jueces ordinarios no executen, y otorguen las apelaciones donde hubiere lugar de derecho.\" The lower judge is stopped from executing the forfeiture and made to allow the appeal, which puts the property of a departing foreigner into a court rather than into the treasury by operation of law.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.85
    },
    {
      "id": "c11",
      "text": "What this entry does not establish. It reads eight laws of one título in one impression and says nothing about practice: how far inland any compounded foreigner was actually moved under ley xxj, whether the governors ever reported on occupations and correspondence, how many foreigners held confirmed encomiendas under ley xxij, how often ley xxiiij's forum rule was invoked, or whether any returning foreigner kept his estate under ley xxvj. The entry this corpus holds on foreigners and absentees in the encomiendas rests on a different source and is named here as a thing this corpus holds, not as authority. Nothing was collated against the 1681 first impression, which this corpus also holds.",
      "sources": [
        "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-xxvii-compuestos-y-residencia"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [],
  "faqs": [],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "industry_observation",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": true,
  "winning_edge": "Accounts of foreigners in Spanish America move from the prohibition to the evidence that foreigners were everywhere anyway, and skip the legal status in between. These eight laws are that status, and they are specific where the summaries are vague: the compounded man is declared outside the prohibition and safe from later commissions, but licensed only where he lives, so that a Peruvian resident may not trade into New Spain or the Philippines; he must be moved inland from the maritime towns by a distance the officials choose; and the viceroys are to find out what he does, whom he corresponds with and whom he trades with. Beside that this entry puts two things a defensive account would leave out and a hostile one would miss — that foreigners held confirmed encomiendas over Indigenous tributaries and are protected from the commissions by name, and that a foreigner leaving for Spain whose estate had been forfeited was given his appeal, with the ordinary judge forbidden to execute.",
  "confidence": 0.85,
  "last_verified": "2026-10-21",
  "media": [],
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    "name": "What a compounded foreigner was allowed to be: the eight laws that let him stay, pushed him inland away from the ports, asked the governors what he did for a living, and exempted the foreign encomendero",
    "description": "Leyes xviiij to xxvj of libro VIIII, título XXVII of the Recopilación govern the status of the foreigner who had already compounded. He is declared outside the prohibition, may reside and trade where he lives but not between Peru, New Spain and the Philippines, is to be moved inland from the maritime towns with the governors reporting on his occupation and contacts, and may not compound anywhere but where he lives. A foreign encomendero needed no composición at all. Folios 330-332.",
    "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/extranjeros-compuestos-residencia-y-excepciones",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-10-21",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, libro VIIII título XXVII \"DE LOS EXTRANGEROS, QUE PASAN Á LAS INDIAS\" — leyes xviiij to xxvj alone, from the heading \"Ley xviiij. Que los compuestos legítimamente no se incluyan en la prohibicion de Extrangeros.\" in the right-hand column of the printed folio 330 to the end of ley xxvj at the head of the left-hand column of folio 332, where the heading of ley xxvij stands below it. Both boundaries were read on the leaves. Ley xviiij, margin \"El mismo en Madrid á 12 de Diciembre de 1619\", whose text reads \"LOS Extrangeros, compuestos en virtud de nuestras Cédulas, y comisiones, por las personas que legítimamente las han de executar: Declaramos, que no se incluyan en la prohibicion de Extrangeros, estando una vez compuestos, sino los que sobrevienen, y están sin órden, y licencia nuestra.\" Ley xx, rubric \"Que los Extrangeros una vez compuestos no se comprehendan en otras comisiones, y solamente puedan comerciar en sus Provincias\", margin \"D. Felipe II allí. D. Felipe III en el Pardo á 14 de Diciembre de 1615\", whose text provides that although the compounded may reside and trade \"en las Provincias de su residencia, sea en tal forma, que no puedan contratar en España, ni los del Perú en Nueva España, ni los de Nueva España en el Perú, ni Filipinas, sino en las Provincias donde residieren, pena de que en ellos se executará lo resuelto en la prohibicion general segun se contiene en las leyes de este título.\" Ley xxj, rubric \"Que los Extrangeros compuestos sean retirados de los Puertos\", margin \"El mismo allí á 10 de Diciembre de 1618 y á 12 de Diciembre de 1619\", whose text reads \"MAndamos, que á los Extrangeros compuestos legítimamente se les pueda dar licencia para estar, vivir, y residir en nuestras Indias, donde quisieren, y tratar, y contratar en ellas, sin pasar de lo prohibido, con que no residan en Lugares, y Puertos marítimos, porque esto se ha de prohibir con graves penas, procurando siempre retirarlos tierra adentro las leguas que pareciere conveniente: y para mas seguridad, los Vireyes, y Gobernadores se procuren informar de la ocupacion, en que se emplean, y de que correspondencias se valen, y con que personas contratan, para que con esta noticia puedan averiguar si proceden como es justo, ó exceden de su obligacion.\" Ley xxij, rubric \"Que los Extrangeros Encomenderos no hayan menester composicion\", margin \"El mismo allí. D. Cárlos II en esta Recopilacion\", whose whole text reads \"ORdenamos, que no sean molestados los Extrangeros Encomenderos de Indios, cuyas Encomiendas se hubieren dado por grandes servicios, ó en casamiento, confirmadas por Nos en forma específica.\" Ley xxiij, rubric \"Que los Extrangeros naturalizados en estos Reynos, se puedan componer\", margin \"D. Felipe II allí\", whose text closes \"y con los susodichos, y los naturales, que pasaren sin licencia, se guarden las leyes, y no los permitan desembarcar, ni quedar en las Indias.\" Ley xxiiij, rubric \"Que no se compongan los Extrangeros fuera de sus residencias\", margin \"El mismo allí\", whose text gives its own reason — that foreigners embark meaning to compound \"en Panamá, ó Cartagena, ó en otra parte por donde han de pasar, pareciéndoles que allí se les hará mas conveniencia, porque no hay ya tanta noticia de sus haciendas\" — and orders that they be notified where they reside and have resided that they may not compound except there, \"con apercibimiento, que será en sí ninguna la composicion, que en otra parte hicieren.\" Ley xxv, rubric \"Que los Extrangeros solteros sean echados de los Puertos\", margin \"D. Felipe III en Madrid á 28 de Marzo de 1620\", whose whole text reads \"MAndamos que los Extrangeros solteros, que tratan, contratan, y residen en los Puertos, y Lugares de su correspondencia, sean expelidos de las Indias, si no hubieren pasado con licencia de tratar, y contratar en los Puertos.\" Ley xxvj, rubric \"Que sobre los bienes de los Extrangeros que se quisieren venir, se haga justicia\", margin \"D. Felipe II allí á 13 de Enero de 1596\", whose text provides for foreigners who resolve to return to Spain in conformity with the orders and who have thereby \"incurrido en perdimiento\" of the estate acquired in those ports and provinces: \"Mandamos á nuestras Audiencias, Gobernadores, y Justicias, que hagan justicia, y los Jueces ordinarios no executen, y otorguen las apelaciones donde hubiere lugar de derecho.\"",
        "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=t5EbF6Y1EM4C&pg=PA331"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "What a compounded foreigner was allowed to be: the eight laws that let him stay, pushed him inland away from the ports, asked the governors what he did for a living, and exempted the foreign encomendero"
  }
}