EC 045 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Authoritarianism, Mercantilism, Colonial Brazil
Document Summary
Main goods exported from l. a: gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, dyes. Main goods imported: manufactured products from spain, slaves from. Polity- rights and privileges a function of your social or ethnic group. An authoritarian order with the center of power being the king and council of indies. Council of indies (1524)- in charge of spanish imperial organization. The viceroy- highest executive authority in the colonies (the man in place of the king) Economy based on sugar plantations in first century of colonial rule. Political institutions- authoritarian political system dominated by small elite. By 1825 most of spanish america cis independent: Tax burden, status of creoles and spaniards, napoleonic wars and invasion of peninsula. Conservatives wanted strong centralized power, religious and educational. Conservatives wanted strong centralized power, religious and educational monopoly in hands of catholic church, special privileges of clergy and military. Upper clergy, high ranks of military, monopolistic merchant groups.