{ "id": "gastos-y-relaciones-del-derecho-de-averia", "type": "entity", "name": "A tax the Crown legislated to shrink: an itemised return of what every fleet cost and what the levy yielded, a bar on spending the fund on anything else, and three festival gratuities paid to the auditors out of the same money — libro VIIII título VIII, leyes lviij to lxiij", "summary": "Six laws of the Recopilación de Leyes de Indias govern what the avería, the levy that paid for the convoys of the Indies run, could be spent on. They require an itemised return to the Council of each fleet's cost and of what the levy yielded, state as the Crown's aim that the duty be reduced and that no royal money supplement it, bar any other charge on the fund without the Council's order, cap the money set aside to pay off crews, and grant the auditors three gratuities a year from the fund.", "locale": "en", "tags": [ "colonial-institutions", "colonial-law", "law-of-the-indies", "legislation", "legal-history", "recopilacion", "casa-de-contratacion", "public-finance", "real-hacienda", "taxation", "accountability", "record-keeping", "administration", "trade", "seville", "carrera-de-indias", "new-spain", "spanish-empire", "americas", "institutions", "seventeenth-century" ], "relations": [ { "rel": "related", "target": "recopilacion-de-leyes-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "casa-de-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "contaduria-de-averias-de-la-casa-de-la-contratacion" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "cobranza-y-tanteo-de-la-hacienda-de-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "cargo-y-cuenta-del-receptor-de-la-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "cuenta-por-generos-de-la-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "finiquitos-y-relaciones-al-consejo-de-las-cuentas-de-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "cuenta-por-una-mano-de-la-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "forma-de-la-contaduria-mayor-en-las-cuentas-de-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "ministros-y-solicitadores-pagados-por-la-averia" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "flotas-y-galeones-de-la-carrera-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "pagador-de-las-armadas-y-flotas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "tenedor-de-bastimentos-de-las-armadas" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "forma-y-prelacion-de-las-libranzas-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "prohibicion-de-librar-sin-orden-del-rey" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "salarios-de-los-ministros-de-las-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "consejo-de-indias" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "veitia-norte-de-la-contratacion-1672" }, { "rel": "related", "target": "contribucion-y-tanteo-del-derecho-de-averia" } ], "questions": [ "Did the Spanish Crown ever legislate that one of its own duties should be reduced?", "What could the avería, the convoy levy of the Indies trade, lawfully be spent on?", "Did the Council of the Indies get an itemised account of what each fleet cost?", "Why did the royal officials of Mexico have to report to the accountants of the avería in Seville?", "Were the auditors of the convoy fund paid gratuities out of the fund?" ], "claims": [ { "id": "c1", "text": "The laws read in this entry govern the spending side of the convoy levy, after the laws that build its charge and its audit. In the fourth impression printed at Madrid in 1791 by the widow of Joaquín Ibarra for the Royal and Supreme Council of the Indies, the rubric of ley lviij stands at the head of the left-hand column of the printed folio 105, under the running head \"De la Contaduría de Averías.\"; the six laws read here run to the close of ley lxiij in the right-hand column of folio 106. The foot of the left-hand column of folio 105 prints the tome signature \"Tom. III\", which identifies the volume from its own leaf.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c2", "text": "One of these six laws is a statute stating that one of the Crown's own duties ought to be made smaller. Ordering the Casa de Contratación to send the Council an itemised return of what each armada and fleet of New Spain cost outward and homeward, the law gives as its reason that these expenses must be held \"á lo preciso, é inexcusable, por los empeños de la Avería; y considerado quanto conviene, que este derecho se procure minorar, y que no sea necesario suplir ninguna cantidad de nuestra Real hacienda\" — the fund being in debt, and it being so advisable that this duty be reduced, and that no sum of the royal treasury need make it up.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c3", "text": "The same law says what was wrong with the returns it replaces, and makes the reporting two-sided. Ley lviiij recites that the accounts sent to the Council of expenditure on the Indies fleets \"han venido por mayor, incluyendo en ellas algunos, que no son tocantes á esto\", so that the Council could not see the justification of what was being done. It therefore requires a detailed return on each fleet's departure and another on its return, limited to what the armada or fleet properly cost — and a separate return \"de lo que montaren las Averías de ida, y vuelta de ellas\". Cost on one side, yield on the other, each fleet, twice a voyage.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c4", "text": "Two laws fence the fund off from other uses. Ley lx orders that the money of the average be converted and spent on the purposes for which it was introduced, and that the Casa warrant no other expense, salary, ayuda de costa or maravedí on it without first informing the Council and obtaining its order, \"porque no falten medios para los despachos de Flotas, y Armadas, ni se convierta el caudal en lo que no es tan propio de ellas, que solo puede tener cabimiento quando hay sobras de Averías\" — other purposes have room only when there is a surplus. It closes by ordering receivers and paymasters not to honour a warrant of the Casa, even provisionally, unless the Council's order is cited in it, and declaring that what is paid otherwise shall not be allowed in account. Ley lxj caps the sums set aside on a fleet's return for paying off the sea and war people and the gunners at what the muster and the establishment actually require, less what was already issued for the outward leg, \"con tal cuidado, y puntualidad, que no sobre nada de ellas\".", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c5", "text": "Ley lviij abolishes a document because of what the ambiguity cost the people who held it. The paymaster of the armada and the storekeeper had been paying on pólizas, informal orders, with a despacho in due form to follow; the two differed, says the law, only in name, \"por no tener mas palabras las Pólizas\". The consequence it records is that a party who had already been paid on a legitimate voucher met \"algunas dificultades\" when the formal despatch had to be issued on it, \"con que se ocasionan muchos pleytos\". The remedy is that nothing be paid or delivered except on a despacho in due form, on pain of its not being allowed in account — with an exception, kept narrow and made traceable, for stores needed too urgently to wait, which may be issued on the order of the president or a judge-official of the Casa provided the record of that order is taken afterwards \"sin réplica, ni dilacion\".", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c6", "text": "One of the six reaches across the Atlantic, and it is the only law of this group whose duty falls in the Americas. Ley lxij, from Philip IV at Madrid on 3 July 1624, orders the officials of the royal treasury of the city of Mexico to send the accountants of the average at the Casa de Contratación, every year, the papers of the victuals they sent to Havana with the account of their cost and charges, and also a record of any property of the fund that came into their hands and of what it was spent on. The convoys were provisioned from New Spain at the fund's expense, and the código makes the treasury officials of Mexico accountable for it to an office in Seville.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 }, { "id": "c7", "text": "The last of the six charges the auditors' own gratuities on the fund they audited. Ley lxiij orders the president and judges of the Casa de Contratación of Seville to have paid to the accountants of the average, both the proprietary ones and those added, who serve by royal commission, \"tres propinas de fiestas cada año, del mismo género de hacienda que se pagan las del Presidente, y Jueces al respecto de la del dia del Córpus\" — three festival gratuities a year, from the same fund as the president's and judges', at the rate of the Corpus Christi one. The margin dates it to Philip IV at Madrid on 13 March 1631, and adds a second date as \"Y á 18 de Febrero de él\" without repeating the year; the margin of ley lxvj on folio 107 reads \"D. Felipe IIII allí á 18 de Febrero de 1631\", which identifies it.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.85 }, { "id": "c8", "text": "What a flattering reading of these six laws would leave out, and the leaves do not. The itemised return of ley lviiij goes to the Council of the Indies and to no one else; the merchants who paid the levy are not among its addressees, and the código provides them no sight of what their money bought. The Crown's stated wish to reduce the duty is argued from the royal treasury's exposure — that no royal money should need to supplement the fund — as much as from the payers' burden, and the law states that motive in the same clause. Ley lx's ring-fence has a hole in it by its own terms: other charges are lawful with the Council's order, and the Council is the body that would benefit. Ley lxiij charges the auditors' festival gratuities on the fund whose accounts they took, which the código prints without remark. And the recital that the average was in debt — \"por los empeños de la Avería\" — is the código conceding that a levy raised on the commerce of the Americas was already running on borrowed money.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.8 }, { "id": "c9", "text": "What this entry does not establish. It reads six laws of one título in one impression. It says nothing about the rate of the average, which these laws do not state, about what any fleet in fact cost or the levy in fact yielded, about whether the returns ley lviiij requires were ever sent, about what a propina was worth, or about whether the duty was in fact reduced. Ley lviij and leyes lx and lxj carry chapter numbers of a cédula of Philip IV named earlier in the título and read in a sibling entry of this corpus, not restated from these leaves; ley lviiij carries a chapter number only. The laws of this título before ley lviij and after ley lxiij are read in sibling entries, not here.", "sources": [ "recopilacion-1791-libro-ix-titulo-viii-gastos-y-relaciones" ], "confidence": 0.9 } ], "takeaways": [], "faqs": [], "evidence_tier": "primary", "evidence": { "level": "industry_observation", "source_types": [ "paper" ] }, "moat_flag": true, "winning_edge": "This entry reads the six laws of the Recopilación that say what the convoy levy of the Indies could be spent on and what had to be reported of it, and what it adds is below the resolution of a summary of the código: a statute whose own stated aim is \"que este derecho se procure minorar\" — that this duty be reduced — enforced by an itemised return to the Council of each fleet's cost and of the levy's yield, outward and homeward, replacing returns the law says came \"por mayor\"; a ring-fence barring any other salary or allowance on the fund without the Council's order, with warrants void unless that order is cited in them; a cap on pay-off money keyed to the muster; and an annual account owed by the royal treasury officials of Mexico, in the Americas, to an office in Seville. It prints beside them what the same laws concede: that the fund was already in debt, that the reduction is wanted partly so the royal treasury need not supplement it, that the ring-fence opens on the Council's own order, and that the four accountants drew three festival gratuities a year from the fund they audited.", "confidence": 0.85, "last_verified": "2026-10-30", "media": [], "x": {}, "canonical_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/gastos-y-relaciones-del-derecho-de-averia", "api_url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/api/k/gastos-y-relaciones-del-derecho-de-averia.json", "jsonld": { "@context": "https://schema.org", "name": "A tax the Crown legislated to shrink: an itemised return of what every fleet cost and what the levy yielded, a bar on spending the fund on anything else, and three festival gratuities paid to the auditors out of the same money — libro VIIII título VIII, leyes lviij to lxiij", "description": "Six laws of the Recopilación de Leyes de Indias govern what the avería, the levy that paid for the convoys of the Indies run, could be spent on. They require an itemised return to the Council of each fleet's cost and of what the levy yielded, state as the Crown's aim that the duty be reduced and that no royal money supplement it, bar any other charge on the fund without the Council's order, cap the money set aside to pay off crews, and grant the auditors three gratuities a year from the fund.", "url": "https://hispanic-legacy.com/k/gastos-y-relaciones-del-derecho-de-averia", "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html", "dateModified": "2026-10-30", "citation": [ { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, libro VIIII título VIII \"DE LA CONTADURÍA DE AVERÍAS, Y CONTADORES Diputados\" — leyes lviij, lviiij, lx, lxj, lxij and lxiij, the six laws that govern what the average could be spent on and what had to be reported of it: payment only on despachos in due form and never on pólizas, an itemised return to the Council of what each fleet cost and of what the levy yielded outward and homeward, a bar on charging any other expense, salary or ayuda de costa on the fund without the Council's order, a cap on the sums set aside for paying off the crews, an annual account from the royal officials of Mexico of victuals sent to Havana on the fund, and three festival gratuities a year to the four accountants out of the same money. The six laws run from the rubric of ley lviij at the head of the left-hand column of the printed folio 105 to the close of ley lxiij in the right-hand column of folio 106. Ley lviij, rubric \"Que el Pagador de la Armada, y Tenedor de Bastimentos no paguen por Pólizas, sino por Despachos en forma.\", margin \"Cap. 13. El mismo allí á 27 de Noviembre de 1651.\", whose text reads \"POR excusar el embarazo que se causa con librar en el Pagador de la Armada, y Tenedor de Bastimentos, por Polizas, habiéndose de dar despues Despachos en forma, diferenciándose solo en el nombre, por no tener mas palabras las Pólizas, de que tambien resulta á las partes gran molestia, pues habiendo pagado, en virtud de recaudos legítimos, como son las Pólizas, quando se les ha de dar en virtud de ellas el Despacho, se les ponen algunas dificultades, con que se ocasionan muchos pleytos, siendo así, que al que paga no le toca mas que obedecer las órdenes que da el Ministro, á cuya distribucion está el dinero: Ordenamos y mandamos, que el Pagador de la Armada, y Tenedor de Bastimentos, no paguen, ni entreguen cosa alguna por Pólizas, sino por Despachos en forma, con que en los Oficios habrá la razon, y claridad necesaria, y se podrá dar quando se pidiere con mas facilidad, excusando los embarazos, y dudas, que se suelen ofrecer, y la molestia que de esto reciben las partes; y en esta conformidad se executará, estando advertidos el Pagador, y Tenedor de Bastimentos, que si en otra forma pagaren, ó entregaren, no se recibirá, ni pasará en cuenta: con calidad de que si sucediere, que al tiempo de los despachos de Galeones, y Flotas fueren menester algunos géneros de los del cargo del Tenedor, con tanta brevedad, que no se pueda aguardar al despacho del recaudo en forma, por socorrer algun Baxel, que esté á peligro, ó por otra causa semejante, entregue todo lo que se le mandare, en virtud de la órden del Presidente, ó Juez Oficial de la Casa, que se hallare al despacho; y aunque sea despues del entrego, se tome la razon de la órden, por los Oficios á quien tocare, sin réplica, ni dilacion.\" Ley lviiij, rubric \"Que la Casa envie al Consejo relacion por menor de los gastos de las Armadas, y Flotas, y valor de las Averías.\", margin \"Capítulo 14.\", whose text reads \"POR haberse reconocido, que las relaciones que se han enviado á nuestro Consejo, de los gastos hechos en Armadas, y Flotas de Indias, así en sus despachos, como en el recibo, han venido por mayor, incluyendo en ellas algunos, que no son tocantes á esto, con que no tiene el Consejo la noticia necesaria para ver la justificacion con que se procede en esta materia, siendo tan importante el procurar que se ajusten estos gastos á lo preciso, é inexcusable, por los empeños de la Avería; y considerado quanto conviene, que este derecho se procure minorar, y que no sea necesario suplir ninguna cantidad de nuestra Real hacienda: Mandamos á la Casa de Contratacion, que en partiendo cada Armada, y Flota de Nueva España, envie al Consejo relacion por menor de lo gastado en ellas, y que lo mismo haga en volviendo á estos Reynos, de lo que montare el gasto del viage, y su recibo, procediendo con toda puntualidad, y no incluyendo en las relaciones mas que lo preciso de la costa de la Armada, ó Flota; y que tambien envie otra relacion de lo que montaren las Averías de ida, y vuelta de ellas, y así lo executarán con particular cuidado.\" Ley lx, rubric \"Que en el género de Avería no libre la Casa, sin órden del Consejo, otros gastos.\", margin \"D. Felipe IIII allí, cap. 15.\", whose text reads \"SUpuesto que conviene, que la hacienda de la Avería se convierta, y gaste en los efectos de su introduccion, mandamos que la Casa no libre en este género otros gastos, salarios, ayudas de costa, ni maravedís, sin dar cuenta á nuestro Consejo, y preceder órden suya, porque no falten medios para los despachos de Flotas, y Armadas, ni se convierta el caudal en lo que no es tan propio de ellas, que solo puede tener cabimiento quando hay sobras de Averías. Y asimismo mandamos á los Receptores, ó Pagadores, que no cumplan las Libranzas de la Casa, aunque sea por via de entretanto, si en ellas no se citare la órden, ó despacho de nuestro Consejo: y lo que en otra forma pagaren, no se reciba en cuenta.\" Ley lxj, rubric \"Que las separaciones se hagan hasta en la cantidad que montaren los pagamentos.\", margin \"El mismo allí, cap. 16.\", whose text reads \"HASE reconocido que las separaciones que se hacen por los Ministros de la Casa, ó por los Generales de las Flotas, y Armadas, quando llegan á estos Reynos de vuelta de viage, para el pagamento, y remates de la gente de Mar, y Guerra, y Artilleros, suelen ser en mayor cantidad de lo necesario. Y siendo tan conveniente, que todos los gastos se ajusten quanto fuere posible, mandamos que la Casa de Contratacion disponga, que las dichas separaciones se hagan de la cantidad, que solamente fuere precisa, segun la dotacion, y cómputo de la gente que hubiere ido en la Armada, y Flota, descontando lo que se hubiere librado para la ida: y así lo advierta á los Generales al tiempo de la partida de estos Reynos, para que lo executen á vuelta de viage, con tal cuidado, y puntualidad, que no sobre nada de ellas, guardando las órdenes dadas en quanto á los pagamentos, y remates.\" Ley lxij, rubric \"Que los Oficiales Reales de México envien á los Contadores de Avería razon de bastimentos, y hacienda, que de este género hubiere entrado en su poder.\", margin \"D. Felipe IIII en Madrid á 3 de Julio de 1624.\", whose text reads \"MAndamos á los Oficiales de nuestra Real hacienda de la Ciudad de México, que envien cada año á los Contadores de Avería de la Casa de Contratacion los papeles que hubiere de la entrega de bastimentos que enviaren á la Habana, con la cuenta de costo, y gastos que en ello se hicieren, y asimismo razon de qualquier género de hacienda que hubiere entrado en su poder por cuenta de la Avería, y de los efectos en que se hubiere distribuido.\" Ley lxiij, rubric \"Que á los quatro Contadores de la Avería se dén tres propinas cada año, como á los Ministros de la Casa.\", margin \"D. Felipe IIII en Madrid á 13 de Marzo de 1631. Y á 18 de Febrero de él.\", whose text reads \"MAndamos al Presidente, y Jueces de la Casa de Contratacion de Sevilla, que hagan dar, y pagar á los Contadores de Avería, propietarios, y acrecentados, que sirven por comision nuestra, tres propinas de fiestas cada año, del mismo género de hacienda que se pagan las del Presidente, y Jueces al respecto de la del dia del Córpus.\"", "url": "https://books.google.com/books?id=t5EbF6Y1EM4C&pg=PA105" } ], "@type": "Article", "headline": "A tax the Crown legislated to shrink: an itemised return of what every fleet cost and what the levy yielded, a bar on spending the fund on anything else, and three festival gratuities paid to the auditors out of the same money — libro VIIII título VIII, leyes lviij to lxiij" } }