Victorián de Villava, fiscal de Charcas: Reforma de España y nueva moral Imperial

Abstract

Several proposals for the reform and political reorganization of the Spanish monarchy stemmed from the Hispanic Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century. The figure of Victorián de Villava, fiscal of Charcas between 1791 and his death in 1802, is especially relevant to study the birth of a way of thinking amongst Spanish thinkers of the Enlightenment which tried to make modernity and catholic culture compatible. Through his numerous writings, Villava promoted a new imperial ethos in which commercial colonization was established as the central aspect of colonial government, in opposition therefore to pure military conquest. His Apuntes para una reforma de Nueva España (1797) introduced the reform of American government into a comprehensive project with the purpose of reforming the monarchy, and in his Discurso sobre la mita del Potosí (1793), Villava hinted at the argument which demanded the reconsideration of the model of Hispanic civilization, and which years later would be redefined at the Cadiz Cortes to promote the abolition of the mita.