Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada
Objective/Context: During the eighteenth century, officials from different colonial powers attempted to turn the viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada—present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama—into an economically viable territory. The Spanish Crown embraced its most radical jurisdict...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Published: |
Universidad de los Andes
2023-07-01
|
| Series: | Historia Crítica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/hiscrit/article/view/1432/8780 |
| _version_ | 1797780923182219264 |
|---|---|
| author | María José Afanador-Llach |
| author_facet | María José Afanador-Llach |
| author_sort | María José Afanador-Llach |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective/Context: During the eighteenth century, officials from different colonial powers attempted to turn the viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada—present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama—into an economically viable territory. The Spanish Crown embraced its most radical jurisdictional reform in centuries to exercise effective state control, extract more revenue, and defend the colonies from foreign incursions. This article explores the particularities of New Granada’s economic governance and argues that colonial officials produced local discourses of political economy to turn unfamiliar spaces into familiar places for economic, political, and military ends. In doing so, producing knowledge about the land and its resources became a key bureaucratic practice that shaped the imagining of a paradoxical territoriality in Northern South America. First, I detail the impact of political economy frameworks on imperial governance and bureaucratic practices. I then showcase how administrative narratives, mapping projects, and fiscal networks reveal the workings of Bourbon economic governance and the search for regional integration. Methodology: This article is built from an analysis of archival documents consisting of a selection of evidence from chorographic texts about New Granada and its provinces produced between 1720 and 1808. Originality: Reflecting on the ways in which the pursuit of knowledge for wealth creation affected the creation of territorialities contributes to uncovering how the imperial political economy was never a top-down imposition. Local officials negotiated it vis-à-vis singular geographical realities and knowledge production practices. Conclusions: Chorographic texts were central devices of imperial reform. The search for wealth production and territorial integration occurred in colonial outposts, not in intellectual treatises in Europe. In forging New Granada as an integrated, potentially rich place, bureaucrats’ experience of moving across the territory and inscribing the landscape on paper shaped perceptions of cohesion and difference, economic dependence, and regional fragmentation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:50:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c36147d242534c0ea377585d92f90a73 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0121-1617 1900-6152 |
| language | Spanish |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:50:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de los Andes |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Historia Crítica |
| spelling | doaj.art-c36147d242534c0ea377585d92f90a732023-07-13T16:04:29ZspaUniversidad de los AndesHistoria Crítica0121-16171900-61522023-07-01897710110.7440/histcrit89.2023.03Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New GranadaMaría José Afanador-Llach0Universidad de los Andes, ColombiaObjective/Context: During the eighteenth century, officials from different colonial powers attempted to turn the viceroyalty of the New Kingdom of Granada—present-day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama—into an economically viable territory. The Spanish Crown embraced its most radical jurisdictional reform in centuries to exercise effective state control, extract more revenue, and defend the colonies from foreign incursions. This article explores the particularities of New Granada’s economic governance and argues that colonial officials produced local discourses of political economy to turn unfamiliar spaces into familiar places for economic, political, and military ends. In doing so, producing knowledge about the land and its resources became a key bureaucratic practice that shaped the imagining of a paradoxical territoriality in Northern South America. First, I detail the impact of political economy frameworks on imperial governance and bureaucratic practices. I then showcase how administrative narratives, mapping projects, and fiscal networks reveal the workings of Bourbon economic governance and the search for regional integration. Methodology: This article is built from an analysis of archival documents consisting of a selection of evidence from chorographic texts about New Granada and its provinces produced between 1720 and 1808. Originality: Reflecting on the ways in which the pursuit of knowledge for wealth creation affected the creation of territorialities contributes to uncovering how the imperial political economy was never a top-down imposition. Local officials negotiated it vis-à-vis singular geographical realities and knowledge production practices. Conclusions: Chorographic texts were central devices of imperial reform. The search for wealth production and territorial integration occurred in colonial outposts, not in intellectual treatises in Europe. In forging New Granada as an integrated, potentially rich place, bureaucrats’ experience of moving across the territory and inscribing the landscape on paper shaped perceptions of cohesion and difference, economic dependence, and regional fragmentation.https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/hiscrit/article/view/1432/8780bourbon reformseconomic governmentknowledge productionpolitical economyterritoryviceroyalty of new kingdom of granada |
| spellingShingle | María José Afanador-Llach Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada Historia Crítica bourbon reforms economic government knowledge production political economy territory viceroyalty of new kingdom of granada |
| title | Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| title_full | Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| title_fullStr | Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| title_full_unstemmed | Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| title_short | Political Economy and Knowledge Production in the Making of the Viceroyalty of New Granada |
| title_sort | political economy and knowledge production in the making of the viceroyalty of new granada |
| topic | bourbon reforms economic government knowledge production political economy territory viceroyalty of new kingdom of granada |
| url | https://revistas.uniandes.edu.co/index.php/hiscrit/article/view/1432/8780 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mariajoseafanadorllach politicaleconomyandknowledgeproductioninthemakingoftheviceroyaltyofnewgranada |