Conselho da Fazenda
Conselho da Fazenda
Conselho da Fazenda (Treasury Council), founded in 1591 after Spain's annexation of Portugal as part of Philip II's attempt to centralize the state bureaucracy. The Conselho da Fazenda exercised jurisdiction over all matters pertaining to the crown's royal revenues. During the Portuguese Restoration, the Conselho assumed the appearance it would maintain throughout the early modern era. After 1642 it consisted of three vedores (inspectors), who were noblemen; four conselheiros (counselors), all of whom were university-trained lawyers (Letrados) and who by 1700 were judges (Desembargadores); and four scribes. Several subordinate tribunals worked under the Conselho, including customs (alfândega), mint, Casa da India, and Casa dos Contos (exchequer).
In addition to the collection and management of royal revenues, the Conselho dealt with wide-ranging problems affecting commerce at home and in the colonies. Apart from the daily management of the royal revenues, it is difficult to judge how much power the Conselho da Fazenda, or most of the other councils, actually wielded. Portuguese kings had no obligation to heed its decisions. Because noblemen frequently sat on several councils at the same time, the crown increasingly came to rely on a small group of advisers for important decisions. In 1761 the marquês de Pombal stripped most of the Conselho's authority by turning it into a voluntary claims tribunal and severely narrowing its jurisdiction. In 1790 the Conselho was consolidated with the royal exchequer and effectively dissolved.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Padre Antônio Carvalho Da Costa, Corografia portuguesa, e descripção topográfica do famoso reyno de Portugal, 3 vols. (1706–1712).
Joel Serrão, ed., Dicionário de história de Portugal, 6 vols. (1979).
Additional Bibliography
Anderson, James Maxwell. The History of Portugal. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000.
William Donovan