1 ORIGIN & VOLUME OF REMISSION OF ROYAL TAX REVENUES FROM THE VICEROYALTIES OF PERU & NUEVA ESPAÑA by Herbert S. Klein Columbia University & Stanford University Published in Antonio-Miguel Bernal, ed., Dinero, moneda y crédito en la monarquía hispánica, Proceedings, Simposio Internacional, Dinero, moneda y crédito: De la Monarquía Hispánica al Integración Monetaria Europea (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2000), 269-292 There is little question that the Crown generated enormous revenues out of its colonial empire from the 16 th to the 19 th century. But the source of these revenues would change over time due to profound changes in the origin of that income in America. The aim of my paper will be to describe both the origins of such revenues and the volume of Spanish American tax receipts remitted to Spain in the course of these three centuries. I am especially concerned with the evolution of these tax revenues by type of taxation, their reflection of local economic change, and how these influenced remissions to the metropolitan center. For this study I have selected the two most important and largest colonies of the Spanish American empire, the viceroyalty of Peru and its dependent Audienca of Charcas (Bolivia) and the viceroyalty of Nueva España (Mexico) which together accounted for the majority of remissions in this period. Because of the quality of surviving records in all of these zones, most of the comparative analysis of these two colonies deals with the period from 1680 until 1808. 1 During this period there were major shifts in the magnitude of each of these zones in terms of the relative weight of their contribution to the royal exchequer. Of the 9.8 million pesos generated by these three zones in an average year in the 1680s, two thirds then came from the Andean colonies of Peru and Charcas. The former produced 3.1 million pesos per annum and the later 3 million pesos. The entire Viceroyalty of New Spain at this time generated only 3.7 million pesos. These numbers still reflected the historic role of Charcas and Peru as the leading centers of royal revenue in the 16th and the 17th century. This Andean dominance appeared not only in terms of total gross revenues collected, but also in the amount of "surplus" revenues (monies left over from tax revenues after all local expenses were deducted) which the Crown was able to extract from these two Andean centers. Between half to two thirds of total government silver exported to Spain or its colony in the Philippines, came from the Peruvian Viceroyalty until the decade of the 1660s (see table 1)