Abalos, José de

José de Abalos, intendant of the province of Venezuela (1776–1783). Born in La Mancha, Spain, Abalos was chief official of accounting and of general administration on the island of Cuba and chief accountant in the province of Venezuela. When the intendancy of Venezuela was created by royal decree on 8 December 1776, he was appointed to the office of intendant by order of King Charles III.

By order of the crown, Abalos developed a program of instruction for the workings of the intendancy, which can be considered the first organic law for the administration of finance in Venezuela. While serving as intendant, he promoted numerous initiatives for the economic and commercial benefit of the province. He was inflexible in the collection of taxes; intervened in and confronted the Compañía Guipuzcoana; offered credits to landowners; stimulated the diversification of crops; reactivated the mining industry; fought contraband; and established the state monopoly on playing cards, spirits, and tobacco. By the time of his retirement from the post in 1783, Abalos had brought about important advances in the reorganization of the royal finances and in the recuperation of the economy of the province of Venezuela.

See alsoCuba: The Colonial Era (1492–1898); Intendancy System; Venezuela: The Colonial Era.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For Abalos's influence on the colonial Venezuelan economy, see Eduardo Arcila Farías, Economía colonial de Venezuela (1946). See also P. Michael Mc Kinley, Pre-revolutionary Caracas: Politics, Economy, and Society, 1777–1811 (1985); María Teresa Zubiri Marín, "José Abalos, primer intendente de Venezuela, 1777–1783," Boletín Americanista (Barcelona) 30, no. 38 (1988): 287-297.

Additional Bibliography

Lucena Giraldo, Manuel, José de Abalos, and Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea. Premoniciones de la independencia de Iberoamérica: Las reflexiones de José de Abalos y el conde de Aranda sobre la situación de la América española a finales del siglo XVIII. Madrid: Fundación Mapfre Tavera, 2003.

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