El valor de los méritos. Teoría y práctica política en la provisión de oficios (Quito, 1675-1700)

Abstract

The principal objective of this article is to contextualize the sale of positions and offices within the complex recruiting system of the Hispanic Monarchy, in order to consider the effects it could have had as a mechanism for access to power. A series of theoretical considerations exposed by various authors of the 16th and 17th centuries - among which clear differences of argument and purpose can be observed - serves as a point of departure for a case study that reveals the diverse variables that, in practice, were overlapped and interacted in the appointment and promotion of agents in different levels of the administration.