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In this paper, I present one of my focus of research dealing with remote government as part of the Hispanic Monarchy: analyzing Philippines’ case, I try to identify the mechanisms of connections between different parts of the “empire” and the options followed – or rather the trial-and-error methods – to establish a Castilian dominion in Asia. One aspect of this issue lies in the role of religious institutions within the government, specially the bishop’s and diocese’s role, while in Asia relations with the Portuguese were still at odds. I study the geopolitical implications of the creation of Manila’s diocese, and how the bishopric was an adjustement variable in the search for a good government in the Philippines. I also try to explain Domingo de Salazar’s appointment as first bishop of the Philippines, a Dominican friar, defender of the Indians, who turned out to be a real statesman.

The article discusses the first three messengers sent to Madrid from the Philippines and Mexico to report on the progress of the "Jornada del Poniente" led by Miguel López de Legazpi and to present a series of petitions. The issues at stake were, on the one hand, the boundary between Spanish and Portuguese established by the Treaty of Zaragoza signed in 1529 and, on the other hand, the desire of the expedition members to begin the conquest. The Madrid negotiations are also taking place in the context of the reform of the Indian government, which took shape in 1568 with the Junta Magna. Ultimately, the article first demonstrates the role of knowledge, as a resource and capital, in the relationship established between the king and his distant vassals. Second, it examines the value of physical presence at the Court to present and defend petitions. Third, the article shows that the messenger had a kind of monopoly in the Court that could be contrary to the interests of the mandators. In conclusion, we understand that, in the Hispanic imperial space, communication had been confronted with socio-political rather than geographical "roughness".

We're interested in processes to "overcome distance" in an imperial context. In studying two unknown figures of political and social mediation, the procuradores generales and the agentes de negocios de Indias in Madrid, we put forward the role of the oral and the co-presence in the communications between America and the court in Spain. Indeed, procuradores and agentes represented American persons and institutions, as important as the municipal councils or the cathedral chapters, before the Council of the Indies. After defining these two professions, we will present several profiles dating from the first half of the seventeenth century.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish monarch entrusted the government of the Hispano-American territories to the Consejo de Indias. In the 17th century, intent on achieving better control of the vast and far-flung territories of the western Indies, the monarchy ordered a census and a list of all the civil offices and ecclesiastical benefices granted by Philip IV. For that task, the list was the instrument par excellence used in their daily routine—manejo de papeles—by the bureaucrats in Madrid. From 1630 to 1660, a clerk in the secretariat of New Spain, Juan Díez de la Calle, a relator, Antonio de León Pinelo, and the chronicler of the Indies, Gil González Dávila, worked on several lists which paint a picture of the Spanish leviathan. The extraordinary scale of the lists lends some glory to the Spanish enterprise in America—they afford the reader a notion of the general scale of the American territories and an appreciation of the extent of the royal power and the evangelising ardour of the Crown.

The biography of Juan Díez de la Calle, clerk of the Council of the Indies from 1624 to 1662, contributes to our knowledge of how a composite monarchy succeeded in governing and preserving its American territories. Juan Díez de la Calle’s social and professional universe demonstrates the importance of family, transatlantic networks and client relationships in the Iberian empire’s administration. His daily activities show how power was essentially expressed by the “manipulation of papers”. Due to serious distance constraints, the circulation of information was a major stake for the Crown: knowledge and power were inseparable in the imperial space studied here. Díez de la Calle gathered an important body of documentation and called on informants to draft a list of civil employees and clerics of the Crown in the West Indies. His Noticias Sacras y Reales, published between 1645 and 1654, reflect the representation of space produced by the Council of the Indies. The preference of this list, rather than of a map, and his utilization of pre-statistical methodology testify to the construction of a modern State. Imperialist and providential ideology transcends the entire work of the clerk, placing the West Indies in the heart of the Catholic monarchy.