The national treasury in the regional space. The challenges of reorganizing the institutions and the fiscal bureaucracy after independence

Abstract

This article approaches the organization process of the institutions and bureaucracy of the National Treasury in the regions of the nascent republic of Chile, in the first half of the 19th century. The colonial rupture brought about major breaks and transformations at all levels of administration, and the National Treasury was no exception. However, in this area there are also strong continuities with the colonial past; the war situation and the urgent need to materially finance the incipient State implied major challenges: the new rulers had to face precarious institutions, material poverty and lack of human capital. On the other hand, the political rupture did not change the social structures, and the social networks that supported the bureaucracy changed little. Thus, the transformative impulses and projects collided with practices of the “old regime”, such as the social, family and friendship ties that had been created within the civil service, which not only influenced but even determined the hiring, hierarchization and promotion mechanisms. Through the analysis of two case studies -an embezzlement case in Valdivia in 1828, and the organization of the Valparaíso customs office under the government of Bernardo O’Higgins-, we will explore the daily life of the administration, to see from a local scale the problems and challenges involved in the organization of the National Treasury in the regions of Chile.

Keywords: National Treasury, Regional Bureaucracy, State formation, Chile 19th century.