The political communication in the pluricontinental Portuguese monarchy: Kingdom, Atlantic and Brazil (1580-1808)
The political communication in the pluricontinental Portuguese monarchy: Kingdom, Atlantic and Brazil (1580-1808)
This project does not propose the study of unknown information, but rather another way of looking at and treating sources that have already been partly examined. The term "political communication" has been used by political scientists to describe the new methods of circulating political information in modern societies that are not confined only to the passive, mass reception of television, but also include other means and agents, including the internet, altering the content and forms of delivery. We use it here to underline the importance of understanding and studying the production agents, production rhythms, circulation channels, types of subject and, lastly, the final destination of the representations from the peripheries to the centre of the Portuguese monarchy and vice versa in its 16th to 18th century pluricontinental dimension. This is a fundamental issue, already partly studied under other titles, but which gains greatly from being studied in a systematic, relatively uniform manner comparing different geographical regions. In recent decades, Portuguese historiography, like its Brazilian counterpart, has come to realize the scanty resources which the monarchy had to manage its vast territories, both in Europe and in the more remote places under its control. There has been much discussion about the ways and means by which, despite the scarcity of resources, those territories were held together for so long. Many aspects of this have been studied in detail, such as the policy of royal grants. However, what is proposed for research here is of particular importance because it was a necessary mediation of almost all others. The king, who was the head of the monarchy, was by definition absent. Even within the territory of the kingdom, the royal progress traversed an increasingly confined space. The governors and captains-general were up to a point his agents, as were, at a different level, the magistrates and justices (corregedores, ouvidores and provedores). However, there were other ways of communicating with the centre, at times against the governors or against the justices. One of the distinctive features of the Portuguese monarchy was something that it shared with the Spanish monarchy, "which developed a highly co-ordinated imperial administration", in that "everyone could appeal to the royal courts (....), to which even the Viceroy was subject" (Pagden). All this applied equally to Portugal. In fact, in the General Archive of Simancas (AGS) prior to 1640, as is the case later in the various councils and courts of the central administration of the Braganças (in particular the Overseas Council where the islands and overseas territories are concerned), petitions and applications - individual, collective or institutional - abound. In essence, it was a widespread and well known practice. It was partly muddled with a judicial act, and in that sense, is a perfect example of the large grey area that existed under the Ancien Regime between the judicial and the administrative. There was not, in fact, a clear distinction between matters of "grace" and matters of "justice". It seems that under various names, petitions, applications, appeals or pleas were a common practice in western Europe, at least where there was a strong influence of Roman law. A debatable issue is whether or not there was a fundamental distinction between this practice and the drafting of petitions that took place at the time of the summoning of the Cortes or States-General, or between individual petitions and collective or institutional petitions. Further, petitions existed alongside other forms of political communication such as letters, pamphlets or, in the context of the 18th century and the emergence of what has come to be called the public space, alongside the press. What we wish to suggest is that petitions of all kinds were an essential instrument of political communication in the Portuguese monarchy of the Ancien Regime, and that systematic study of them would enable us to understand better its forms of political functioning and its integration mechanisms.
Political communication, Local powers, Administration, Social mobility
This project does not propose the study of unknown information, but rather another way of looking at and treating sources that have already been partly examined. The term "political communication" has been used by political scientists to describe the new methods of circulating political information in modern societies that are not confined only to the passive, mass reception of television, but also include other means and agents, including the internet, altering the content and forms of delivery. We use it here to underline the importance of understanding and studying the production agents, production rhythms, circulation channels, types of subject and, lastly, the final destination of the representations from the peripheries to the centre of the Portuguese monarchy and vice versa in its 16th to 18th century pluricontinental dimension. This is a fundamental issue, already partly studied under other titles, but which gains greatly from being studied in a systematic, relatively uniform manner comparing different geographical regions. In recent decades, Portuguese historiography, like its Brazilian counterpart, has come to realize the scanty resources which the monarchy had to manage its vast territories, both in Europe and in the more remote places under its control. There has been much discussion about the ways and means by which, despite the scarcity of resources, those territories were held together for so long. Many aspects of this have been studied in detail, such as the policy of royal grants. However, what is proposed for research here is of particular importance because it was a necessary mediation of almost all others. The king, who was the head of the monarchy, was by definition absent. Even within the territory of the kingdom, the royal progress traversed an increasingly confined space. The governors and captains-general were up to a point his agents, as were, at a different level, the magistrates and justices (corregedores, ouvidores and provedores). However, there were other ways of communicating with the centre, at times against the governors or against the justices. One of the distinctive features of the Portuguese monarchy was something that it shared with the Spanish monarchy, "which developed a highly co-ordinated imperial administration", in that "everyone could appeal to the royal courts (....), to which even the Viceroy was subject" (Pagden). All this applied equally to Portugal. In fact, in the General Archive of Simancas (AGS) prior to 1640, as is the case later in the various councils and courts of the central administration of the Braganças (in particular the Overseas Council where the islands and overseas territories are concerned), petitions and applications - individual, collective or institutional - abound. In essence, it was a widespread and well known practice. It was partly muddled with a judicial act, and in that sense, is a perfect example of the large grey area that existed under the Ancien Regime between the judicial and the administrative. There was not, in fact, a clear distinction between matters of "grace" and matters of "justice". It seems that under various names, petitions, applications, appeals or pleas were a common practice in western Europe, at least where there was a strong influence of Roman law. A debatable issue is whether or not there was a fundamental distinction between this practice and the drafting of petitions that took place at the time of the summoning of the Cortes or States-General, or between individual petitions and collective or institutional petitions. Further, petitions existed alongside other forms of political communication such as letters, pamphlets or, in the context of the 18th century and the emergence of what has come to be called the public space, alongside the press. What we wish to suggest is that petitions of all kinds were an essential instrument of political communication in the Portuguese monarchy of the Ancien Regime, and that systematic study of them would enable us to understand better its forms of political functioning and its integration mechanisms.