An Empire of Networks: The Political Economy of the Habsburgs in the Caribbean (1492-1556)

  1. Cachero Vinuesa, Montserrat 1
  2. Rodríguez-Modroño, Paula 1
  1. 1 Universidad Pablo de Olavide
    info

    Universidad Pablo de Olavide

    Sevilla, España

    ROR https://ror.org/02z749649

Revista:
Journal of Historical Network Research

ISSN: 2535-8863

Any de publicació: 2022

Volum: 7

Número: 1

Pàgines: 181-215

Tipus: Article

DOI: 10.25517/JHNR.V7I1.115 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAccés obert editor

Altres publicacions en: Journal of Historical Network Research

Resum

This article presents an analysis of privileges as one of the instruments used for the colonization of the New World. Based on an original dataset comprising more than five hundred prerogatives granted by the Spanish Crown, this article applies network analysis to reconstruct and map the concession of privileges by the Habsburg monarchy during the first half of the 16th century. In a high uncertainty scenario, we depict privileges as a necessary cost assumed by the monarchy to solve the principal-agent problem by building up a structure to facilitate information flow, enabling the remote governance of overseas territories.