Obligaciones de los Administrados

Public banks were therefore estabhshed due to a series o f governmental pressures

^®^See S. Tinoco, "Mercaderes, banqueros y bancos publicos. Aproximacion a la problematica de la banca en la Sevilla del siglo XVI,” Revista d'H istoria M odema 1 (1981): 348; Parker, "El surgimiento de las finanzas," 417,426-427.

^®^S. Tinoco, "Mercaderes, banqueros y bancos publicos," 348.

Ruiz Martin, "La banca en el proceso economico-social de Espana durante los siglos XV, XVI y XVII, ” V Congreso Intem acional de H istoria Economica (Moscow: 1970), 2 and following; "La Banca en Espana hasta 1782," in J.L. Sampedro, E l Banco de Espana. Una historia economica (Mdidnd: 1970), 13 and following.

which forced businessmen to present a support and to lower the risks involved in the financial activities they had long been carrying out, but it is hard to tell when they stopped being merchants who took deposits and became unlicensed private banks. Up to 1615, the credit activity was shared by several businessmen o f the city, o f whom Baltazar de Lorca stood out. W ith their failure, financial transactions were cornered by Juan de la Cueva and Bernardo de Villegas, whose line was initially similar to that o f the first banks, but later on acquired a greater span. On receiving the vecino's trust and connecting themselves financially with the State, these two banks managed to settle down and receive the open support o f the h i p e s t echelons in the viceregal government, and o f its m ost important institutions.

Who were the bank’s holders? We do not have much data on the first bankers, like Vidal, Morales and Altopica. Baltazar de Lorca —undoubtedly the most succesfiil one— was a Spaniard from Cuenca and the legitimate son o f Julian de Lorca and Maria Alonso. Lorca married the Limena Dona Geronima de Solis, with whom he had five children: Julian de Lorca, later alderman in Lima's Cabildo; fiiar Damian de Lorca, who entered the Dominican order, and Lorenza, Leonarda and M ariana de Lorca, who married the merchant Diego Correa de Castro, the future

ensayador m ayor o f the Mint o f Seville.*®^

Together with Lopez de Altopica, Lorca’s was one o f die financial houses with more credit operations in the city. According to the account books o f Miguel de Ochoa, Perulero and later the Prior o f Lima’s Consulate, the shops o f Lorca and Altopica received deposits. We can see the role carried out by Lorca in the current account Ochoa had with Alonso M artin Cano:

"Deve A de aver

-Alonso Martin Cano debe en 22 -A de aver en 29 de marzo de agosto l,333p 3r de a 9 el peso l,333p3r por 1500 patacones que le libre en la tienda de Baltazar que me dio prestados en la tienda de Lorca, el quai se los pagô por mi de Baltazar de Lorca en reales

l,333p 3r l,333p 3r"‘®®

‘®^estamento de Baltazar de Lorca. AGN Civico, #324 (ano 1628b), f. 894r-897v. ^®®Autos contra Miguel Ochoa, mercader. AGI Escribania de Camara 502-A and 502- B; 3 pz.

These mercantile contracts in current acounts were quite frequent. In them, two individuals made a reciprocal shipment o f valuables 0oV»scV\

o t on condition diat their value appeared as a passive debt (debit) in the account o f whoever received it, and as an asset (credit) in that o f the sender, until all the mutual

obligaciones were cancelled All o f Ochoa’s accounts were in 9-real pesos to defend himself from potential variations in die price o f money, eventually profiting from the exchange rate. This clearly shows the w ay these houses deposited, exchanged, transferred and loaned money to their depositors.

In these same books we find that Lorca, Lopez and Ochoa were inside a mercantile group wherein Antonio de la Cueva (brother to the banker Juan de la Cueva), Juan de la Fuente Almonte (later on a veinticuatro in Seville), Bemabé de Munibe and prominent Sevillian merchants like Francisco, Domingo and Tomas de Manara, Julio Anfiiano and Juan de Zavala figured, among others. Miguel de Ochoa placed all the money that came to him in his condition as agent (factor) for several merchants, in Altopica’s or Lorca's shops or in his own house, and from there made all o f his payments and liquidations.^®^

Lorca's testament shows that he was quite w ell-off at the time o f his death. About 20,000 pesos in deeds were owed him (Diego de Morales, the former banker, for whom he did "espera," was among his debtor^ three o f his sons received 140,000 pesos in advance o f their légitim a, and fiiar Damian a chantry.^®* In Spain he had a 50-ducats rent and a house inherited from M aria de Lorca, his sister, whose frmds were managed by Diego Correa, his son-in-law, who Hved in Seville. Besides, he had

^®^In the books we find that, for instance, Lorca was in turn Manara's agent. So all the money Ochoa owed Manara was placed in Lorca's shop, labeling the entries "A Lorca por Manara” AGI Escribania de Camara 502-A and 502-B. Lorca was also involved in tithe- harvesting. In 1613 we find him paying 3,266 pesos for the purchase of the tithes from Chachapoyas and Moyobamba The auction was for a year, beginning in Christmas 1613. He received a discount of 2,450 pesos ensayados to 2,300, which when reduced to 142% gave 3,266 pesos of eight. Obligadon y declaradon. Baltazar de Lorca al Arzobispado y Cabildo. AGN Sanchez Vadillo, #1731 (1614b), f. 1312r-1313v.

^®*His son Julian, the alderman, recdved 70,000 pesos as his légitim a, Leonarda, married with Don Felipe Sanniento de Villandranda, 50,400 pesos; and Mariana, married with his partner Correa, 20,000. To fiiar Damian he left a chantry with an annual rent of 100 pesos, imposed on a house and two shops in the street of Mantas, whose master was Julian. AGN Civico, #324 (1628b), f. 894r-897v.

19 slaves (14 Negroes and 5 Chinese) in his house plus 50 paintings, many silver articles and jewels; the executorship was entrusted to his sons Julian arid Lorenzo, to his wife, and to the banker Juan de la Cueva.

It is no coincidence that the latter was Lorca’s executor, for in a way he was his successor. The Cueva brothers —Juan, Antonio, Esteban, Alonso, friar Francisco and Ana— were bom in Seville, the children o f Custodio Rodrigo and Catalina de la Cueva. Both Antonio and Juan belonged to the same commercial network between Seville and Peru, formed by Lorca, Correa, the Corsican Manara, Ochoa and Juan de la Fuente Almonte, among odiers. Cueva worked first as an agent for Manara and Diego Correa (Lorca’s son-in-law), with whom he had a close and fiiendly relation.'^® But as we shall later see in more detail, Cueva’s affairs grew to a size never before reached, making him the m ost important banker in the first half o f the seventeenth century, along with Villegas.

Bernardo de Villegas was a Spaniard from Cordoba who came to Pern in 1600, when he was about 14 years old. He worked for a time as ’’cajero” for the merchant Hernando de Montoya, then marrying his daughter, the Toledana Dona Marcela de Montoya."^ In 1613 he was a founding member o f the merchant’s guild and had a public bank by 1616. Villegas led a frenzied life and managed to acquire a good social standing despite his bankmptcies and periods in gaol. He was the

m ayordom o and restorer o f the Church and the Hospital de los Naturales o f Santa Ana; its repairs were celebrated in 1629 ”con gran solemnidad... en que mostrô muy

^®®Juan de la Cueva renounced bis role as executor as he was too "ocupado en sus negocios.” Ibid.

“®A detailed study of Cueva's Atlantic mercantile networks can be found in Suarez,

Comercio y fraude.

“ ^In 1625 there was a lawsuit between Montoya's heirs, bis creditors (Antonio de Urena, Andrés de Rojas, Baltazar Fernandez de la Coba, Alonso de Hita and Don Diego de Ayala) and Josepbe de Godoy Delgadillo, who bad bought the 200fanegas of land Montoya bad in Pativilca. AGI Escribania de Camara 505-B. It follows, from the inventory of Montoya's possessions, that be loved paintings and rebgious sculptures; in 1616 vecinos of Lima, Barranca, Arica, Guamabes, Cbucuito, Cbuquisaca, Potosi, Coquimbo, Valdivia, and elsewhere owed him 28,000 pesos. Bernardo de Villegas tried to charge 20% interest to bis debtors, and tried to prove, with witnesses, "que si el dicho Hernando de Montoya por ser mercader y tratar con su plata bubiera ganado con ello 20 por ciento," Ibid., f. 535v.

bien su ânimo genero^ el capitan Bemardo de Villegas.”"^ He carried out a similar woric in the church o f La Merced. In 1628 he promised to restore all o f the temple; two chapels were given him in "recompensa, paga y agradecimiento,” in one o f w hich his body lies at present. Dona Ana de Villegas, his daughter, married Admiral Don Andrés de Infantas and Mendoza, knight o f Santiago, after giving — according to Suardo— the exorbitant sum o f 180,000 pesos as dowry.

Despite his success (or perhaps because o f it), Villegas had many enemies. The K ing received letters where he was accused o f being a "fascineroso y atropellador [of the Kingdom's] leyes.""^ Alonso de Villaroel, who worked in Villegas' house, charged that Villegas had become rich at the expense o f his ''logros'' and seized the estate o f poor persons; i f he now was a powerfiil man, "ayer era muy hurmlde criado de un mercader de muy poco caudal.'' In 1621 Villegas had secretly sent in a vessel more tiian 100,000 pesos belonging to him and "ajenos de los tesoros questaban consignados en su banco;'' as a result, the banker and the affected depositors ended up in a public fight with drawn swords. It was likewise known he had sent much money from Peru to "reinos estranos," and then smuggled 300,000 pesos worth o f clothes which he sold publicly without paying taxes. In 1625 he

‘Suardo, Diario de Lima, 1 ,17. In 1626 Villegas had requested the King he grant the revenues from the snow used in the city to the Hospital o f Santa Ana, as the premises were rundown and it was without medicines. C. De Villegas al rey. Lima, 28 de febrero,

1626. AGI Lima 156.

‘^One of the chapels is called the "Capilla de las Virgenes," the other is between the vestiy and the entrance to the church's alcove, now known as the "Capilla de Villegas." The walls and ceiling have some frescoes attributed to Mateo Perez de Alessio, a distinguished Italian painter. The coat o f arms of Villegas is in one of them, with supporting angels. See Saul Peredo Mszzl, La M erced Basilica y convento (Lima: 1973); J. de Mesa y T. Gisbert,

E lpinior M ateo Pérez de Alesio (La. Ÿaz: 1972), 121-126.

"Suardo, Diario,1,281; LCL, XXm, 520. This was quite a big dowry, comparable to the wealth of aity of the city's important vecinos. The dowry o f Lorca's wife, for instance, was o f only 4,000 pesos ensaya^s. AGN Civico, #324, f. 894r-897v. Villegas had many connections with the government's highest spheres. On 28th May 1630 the Bishop of Arequipa died and his body was in Villega's "huerta" until it was taken to the convent of San Agustin. Suardo, Diario, !, 77. The wife of Dr. Matias de Solis, the Audiencia's Alcalde del Crimen, took refuge in Villega's house after her husband died and was buried in the chapel o f Villegas, in the church of La Merced. Ibid., 1,204.

"^See Alonso de Villaroel Quiroga al rey. Lima, 23 de febrero de 1628 and Lima, 28 de febrero de 1626. AGI Lima 156.

"atravesô en esta cîudad mas de 450,000 pesos de ropa de Castilla” and opened two public shops —one in the Merchants' Street, the other in his house— contravening the laws which prohibited that "los bancos ni cambios que son una misma cosa... no puedan tratar ni contratar ni tener compania en ningun género de mercaderias," under penalty o f losing half their estate and being exiled from all o f the kingdoms. In this he had the help o f Francisco de Tejada and Miguel de Oxirando (later a Consul in the Tribunal), his cajeros, "que miden y cobran y escriben como mozos asalariados." D eals like those Villegas made were quite common in all banks in the city, which was why many o f them had gone bankrupt, ruining many a poor vecino.

Villaroel showed great resentment against these rich protégés o f Viceroy Esquilache and the Audiencia: "ningun rico en estas partes arriesga la vida ni hacienda en la ocasiôn [de enemigo], y si alguno en la ocasiôn pasada ha hecho alguna demostraciôn son los pobres que los ricos harto hacian en el esconder sus haciendas. According to the denouncer, Villegas and his accompUces —

corredores de lonja and merchants"^— were publicly known for their abuses, to the point that "se pubhca en los pulpitos por escandalo y logro manifiesto;" Villaroel even charged that members o f the A udiencia were involved in the trafihc o f more than 30,000 heads o f cattle with the bank's participation. As a remedy, Villaroel requested no less than having the Viceroy and the Kingdom's other judges "removed."” *

The speculations Villegas made were so scandalous that in December 1629 the new Viceroy, the Conde de Chinchon, had him gaoled "por haver atravesado un navio de brea que vino de Nicaragua y subido el género a muy excesivo precio."” ^

” %id.

” ^Viliaroel gave the following merchants and corredores de lonja as accomplices: Tristan de Morales, Torres Volpe, Diego de Olarte, Diego Osorio, Manuel Fernandez, Justo de Porras, Francisco Vasquez Cortés, Gonzalo Barrasa, Sebastian de Tapia, Rodrigo Albar, Francisco de Aguiguren, the Orozcos, Antonio Anfiiano, Diego Segura de Urbina and Juan Arias de Valencia. Those concerned in the bars shipped against their wishes: Jacome de Quesada, Gonzalo de Avila, Juan Arias de Valencia, Francisco Palencia, Miguel and Geronimo Flores, Gregorio de Ybarra, the Contador Aguirre and Pedro Arias. Ibid.

"*Villaroel also accused Villegas of raping the woman who was now his wife, and of swindling poor people like him. Ibid. Lima, 23 de febrero, 1626. AGI Lima 156.

The following year an attempt was made on his life, due to the bankruptcy o f Pedro Rodriguez de Mendoza, the merchant from Potosi, which, it seems, was directly connected with Villegas' own bankruptcy, which befell on 10th June 1630. According to the diarist Suardo, that day Villegas "alzo el banco publico que tenia en esta ciudad y mandé fixar en las puertas del un cartel, para que los que tuviesen que negociar acudiesen a su casa."^^^ The harassed banker managed to "componerse" w ith his creditors, but three years later he was taking refuge in the church o f La Merced due to the execution o f 70,000 pesos the Consulado had made against him Villegas ended in gaol, after voluntarily turning himse lf in the city's gaol, and it was ordered that he be "asentar por preso en eUa."‘^

H is career did not end there. Villegas was once again given permission to open a bank a year after Juan de la Cueva's catastrophic bankruptcy. On April 1636 he q)peared before the Cabildo and stated there w as "mucha necesidad... [en] esta repùblica de banco para fasehdad y comodidad de las contrataciones. " The aldennen agreed it was important to have a bank, but requested a detailed statement o f his possessions. Villegas then presented such a list, whose value came to 240,263 pesos o f eight, distributed as shown in Table 1.5.

Table 1.5 MEMOIR OF THE POSSESSIONS OF BERNARDO DE VILLEGAS, 1636 (in pesos of 8)

Money sent to purchase merchandise in Spain 41,211 Debts in his favor:

a) Outstanding debts in the bank's books 72,664

b) Notarial debts 126,388 p 3r

Total_____________________________________ 240,263 p 3r Source: LCL, XXIII, 347 and following.

^“ Suardo, Diario, 1, 80-81.

^^Suardo, Diario, I, 80. Some months before, in March, one of the ships belonging to Villegas —loaded with 3,700 litres of wine "por quenta de diferentes personas"— ran aground and its cargo was lost. The losses were estimated at 45,000 pesos. Ibid., 1, 59.

S u a rd o , Diario, 1, 294. Juan Arias de Valencia and Jacome de ()uesada had tried to gaol him months before, but the Viceroy "tomé la mano en componerlos." Ibid., 1, 281.

This list did not include properties nor goods belonging to his daughter. Ana de Montoya, as dowry and as heir to Dona Marcela de Montoya. Villegas had clearly persisted with his commercial and financial activities, which were carried out over a wide area, firom Lima to Seville, Chile, Potosi, Cuzco, Arequipa, Huancavelica, etc. Before giving him permission, the Cabildo took many steps ”por el justo recelo con que esta repùblica se halla de concéder semejante licencia por la gran quiebra de Juan de la Cueva.”^^ They finally agreed, but with several conditions: a) guarantees should be o f 80,000 pesos ensayados, b) he could not continue "tratando y contratando," c) the books should be quite clear, not m ixing his business with the bank's and indicating the Hbranzas by day, month and year, "y que no se le recibira en quenta la cantidad que diere sin libranza, ni de la libranza que no tuviere dia, mes y ano," and d) his books would be checked each year once the arm ada had left, by some com isarios specially appointed by the C abildo.

Villegas protested two conditions o f his bank's "asiento": the one forbidding him fi*om continuing trading, and that which forbade him making Hbranzas simply by the depositor's "por escrito o a boca". As regards his deals, Villegas considered that it had been shown tiiat the laws had been established for banks which carried out exchanges with high interests,

pero no en los bancos que carecen del y antes tienen crecida costa sin premio del trabajo y servicio publico a que estan expuestos con todo que mi intento es servir a la repùblica... [y] ya que en esto no tengo ni puedo tener ynterés alguno, no pierda el que puede tener si se me prohibe el contrato con mi hacienda, pues fuera rigurosa cosa que no solo no tubiere ganancia sino