Conselho Ultramarino (Overseas Council)

The Conselho Ultramarino was created by an order (regimento) of 14 July 1642¹Ed. Silva, Collecção Chronologica, 1854-1859, vol. 6, p. 151-154..

It was abolished as part of the liberal reforms, specifically by a decree of 30 August 1833²Ed. Boletim do Conselho Ultramarino, 1867, vol. 2, p. 371., with its competences being taken over by the Secretary of State for Maritime and Overseas Affairs and by the Public Treasury³Henrique, 2019, p. 49. However, an institution with the same name remained active between 1851 and 1868 (Henrique, 2019, p. 61, 178, 229)..

• Regimento of 17 July 1642⁴Ed. Silva, Collecção Chronologica, 1854-1859, vol. 6, p. 151-154.

General

The Conselho Ultramarino was responsible for the management of political-administrative, fiscal, and military affairs, particularly in terms of the provision of offices, the dispatch of ships (Carreira das naus), the issue of regulatory provisions, and the receipt of letters, petitions, requests and other communications from the overseas territories (India, Guinea, S. Tomé, Cape Verde, and Brazil), with the exception of the islands and North Africa⁷Henrique, 2019, p. 31..

On entails

In addition to issuing consultas to the monarch, when called upon by the monarch and his courts, or by the parties, the Conselho Ultramarino maintained communication with royal institutions and officials about chantries and entails scattered throughout the overseas territories of the Portuguese monarchy. Specifically, it could receive requests and petitions relating to entails and entailed estates, many of which were accompanied by attached documents, as weel as issue consultations on the matter⁸Bellotto, 1999, p. 287..

Institutional organisation

The institution initially had a restricted organisational structure: a president, two noble councillors and a letrado councillor¹³Henrique, 2019, p. 31; Cruz, 2015; Myrup, 2015.. A Secretary, assisted by scribes, was responsible for the administration of the papers received and produced¹⁴Bicalho e Costa, 2017; Cardim e Baltasar, 2017..

The roles of its agents

The members of the Conselho Ultramarino issued consultas in three different circumstances. Firstly, in response to orders issued by the monarch to provide information on a particular matter. They could also prepare consultas in response to requests from other courts or councils of the central administration. In these cases, the consultations were subsequently recorded in the books of Consultas do Serviço Real. In a different circumstance, the Counsellors issued consultas on documents of various kinds addressed to the king either by overseas subjects or by local government or peripheral administration officials of the Crown, which were recorded in the books of Consultas de Partes; consultations on requests for posts and offices were recorded in the books of Consultas de Mercês ¹⁵Paragraph based on Souza, 2007, p. 46-62..

In the expediency of its activity, the Conselho Ultramarino also kept record books of royal letters, orders and provisions that preserve documentation on entails, namely the transfer of rights, wills in extenso or summarized, dowry obligations, libels, litigations, sentences and property titles produced and/or accumulated by the respective founders and administrators. From 1673 onwards, the books of letters and orders were organised geographically, as were the books of Consultas de Partes¹⁶Souza, 2007, p. 46-62..