POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND REFORM IN CARTAGENA PROVINCE,

of imperial activities on the Spanish Main, quickly surpassing in importance its older neighbor, Santa Marta, to the east. Once established, the status of Cartagena as the "most esteemed Spanish settlement " in northern South America persisted throughout the colonial era. From the mid-sixteenth century on, the Spanish crown, acting on the "advantageous situation [and] the extent and security " of Cartagena Bay, centered regional commercial, military, and governmental networks at the port.1 After 1550, Cartagena was the principal entrepôt for goods--whether borne on galleons or lone merchantmen (registros)--destined for the interior markets of the New Kingdom of Granada.2 By the same token, Cartagena was the primary outlet for New Granadan exports, notably gold and emeralds. Moreover, because Spanish fleets stopped at Cartagena there before and after the Portobelo fairs (which functioned between 1598 and 1737), the city also served as a link in the Crown's communication with the silver miners and administrators of Peru. As New Granada's commercial hub, Cartagena became its strategic nucleus as well. In the words of Governor Pedro José Fidalgo (1737-1739), "the security of the goods and monies of the merchant community [depended] upon the defense of Cartagena."3 This sentiment, however, hardly needed political pronouncement, for the city's walls and forts had long shouted it. The Spanish monarchy