An inspection with no results. The judicial and fiscal visit of Peru (1664-1696)

Abstract

Throughout the last third of the XVII century, the political and fiscal situation of the Audience of Lima district made it necessary for the Consejo de Indias to order the implementation of a visita process. The metropolitan authorities agreed to divide this task into two parts, one judicial and the other one related to the treasury, but the positive results didn’t occur at any time, not even in its beginning. Thus, in the absence of conclusions, that process was lengthened, passing from one inspector to another with identical performance, without procedural changes for its improvement. In this way, when the visita was concluded, the status of the institutions  ubject to the audit was hardly different from that detected at the beginning of the inspection.