98 CHAPTER 5 STATE, CHURCH, AND SOCIETY
and balances that assured ample deliberation and
consultation on all important questions, but it also
encouraged indecision and delay.
In addition to hearing appellate cases and hold-
ing consultative meetings with their viceroy or cap-
tain general, oidores were required to make regular
tours of inspection of their respective provinces
with the object of making a searching inquiry into
economic and social conditions, treatment of the
natives, and other matters of interest to the crown.
Although viceroys and oidores were well paid by
colonial standards, the style of life their positions
demanded was expensive, and the viceroy or oidor
who did not take advantage of his offi ce to enrich
himself could expect to return to Spain poor.
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
Provincial administration in the Indies was en-
trusted to royal offi cials who governed districts of
varying size and importance from their chief towns
and who usually held the title of corregidor or alcalde
mayor. Some were appointed by the viceroy (from
whom they often bought their jobs), and others by
the crown. They possessed supreme judicial and
political authority in their districts and represented
the royal interest in the cabildos (town councils).
Certain civil and criminal cases could be appealed
from the municipal magistrates to the corregidor,
and from him to the audiencia. If not trained as a
lawyer, the corregidor was assisted by an asesor (le-
gal counsel) in the trial of judicial cases.
Corregidores were of two kinds. Some presided
over Spanish towns, and others, corregidores de
indios, administered indigenous pueblos, or towns,
that paid tribute to the crown. One of the principal
duties of the corregidor de indios, who was usu-
ally appointed for three years, was to protect the
natives from fraudulent or extortionate practices,
but ample testimony exists that the corregidor
was himself the worst offender in this respect. Na-
tivecaciques (chiefs) often were his accomplices in
these extortions. Perhaps the worst abuses of his
authority arose in connection with the practice
of repartimiento or repartimiento de mercancías,
the requirement that indigenous peoples purchase
goods from the corregidor. Ostensibly designed to
protect the natives from the frauds of private Span-
ish traders, the corregidor’s exclusive right to trade
with indígenas became an instrument for his own
speedy enrichment at the expense of the natives.
The crown employed an arsenal of regulations
to ensure good and honest performance on the part
of public offi cials. Viceroys and oidores were forbid-
den to engage in trade or to hold land within their
jurisdictions or to accept gifts or fees; even their so-
cial life was hedged about with many restrictions.
All royal offi cials, from the viceroy down, faced aIn the early seventeenth century, Felipe Guaman
Poma de Ayala, a self-educated indigenous writer,
chronicled the corruption and impunity of corre gi-
dores, who “feared neither justice nor God” and
used their power to amass private fortunes by ex-
ploiting impoverished indigenous people, torturing
their caciques, and stealing the wealth that indig-
enous communities produced. [Waman Puma de Ayala,
La nueva crónica. The Royal Library, Copenhagen, Denmark]