The “Port of the Indies” and the “Indies” of Rome: Fonseca y Rojas’s curial business in early modern Seville (1591-1617)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a case study on a phenomenon hitherto neglected by historiography: curial business management companies. The analysis considers the structure and operations, in Early Modern Spain, of professional intermediation whereby requests for graces of all kinds were submitted on behalf of individuals to the papal administration in Rome. These activities were conducted by agents known as curiales in a huge international market that moved large amounts of capital. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Seville was one of the most active hubs in this market, and Fonseca y Rojas one of the major companies in Castile.