Tribunales de Cuentas de las Indias (1605)

In 1605 the crown planted three standing audit courts in the Americas — at Lima, Santa Fe de Bogotá and Mexico City — with the rank, hours and ceremony of an Audiencia, sole power to close the accounts of anyone who had handled royal money, four prescribed registers and a duty to send every account to Madrid in duplicate. The same code records what the audit could not reach and how far behind it fell.