It has been 700 years since the creation of the Consolat de Mar, the second in the entire Crown of Aragon, which survived until 1800, despite the Bourbon Nueva Planta decrees.
PalmIt's one of Palma's most distinctive buildings, and practically everyone knows what's currently inside: the seat of the regional government; the Moncloa Palace of the Balearic Islands, so to speak. But what was the Consolat de Mar, which gave the building its name? It was the court that handled matters related to maritime trade for almost seven centuries and even survived the Nueva Planta decrees, which abolished all the other institutions of the islands. We commemorate the 700th anniversary of its founding, on February 1, 1326.
Although this doesn't entirely fit with the stereotype that before tourism this was a poor, agricultural area, the fact is that there was a time—the last centuries of the central islands—when the main economic activity was... This implied two things: that merchants constituted a powerful and influential group, and that such activity, as with any human endeavor, was bound to generate conflicts: lost goods, disagreements between merchants, differing interpretations of the same contract.
Maritime façade of the Consolat de Mar, with the Plaza de las Drassanes in the background.Diego Delso
As with almost everything, it fell to James I to take the first initiative when, around 1257, he created a university in Barcelona—not an academic institution at the time, but a governing one—for merchants and sailors, seemingly with some capacity for arbitration in case of conflict. In 1283, the Consulate of the Sea of Valencia was established, already bearing that name. This was not an invention of the Catalan-speaking world. In Italian cities active in trade, such as Pisa, there were already consuls of the sea with similar functions. Today, when a consul is a diplomat, this word might surprise us when used to designate a judge, but back then it could have had several meanings. There were also Majorcan consuls in North African cities, with duties much more in line with what we now understand as a consul.
A likely precedent for the creation of the Consulate of the Sea in Mallorca—the second in the Crown of Aragon, since the one in Barcelona wasn't established until 1348—is a letter that the governor of the island addressed to the reigning monarch, James II, from Perpignan, where he usually resided. In this document, the monarch reprimands him for recusing himself from a dispute between merchants over the cost of repairing a ship, and orders him to, once advised by experts, issue the corresponding ruling. It was therefore advisable to have a specific court for these matters, beyond the "maritime customs" that had been used up to that point. But, with the characteristic islanders' tendency to avoid complications, it didn't arrive until twenty years later. It was Philip of Majorca, son of James II and regent—during the minority of his nephew James III—who established the Consolat de Mar, dated, as we mentioned, February 1, 1326. That is, 700 years ago.
Regent Philip established two consuls—judges—who had to be "virtuous and discreet men"—women were out of the question, of course, at that time—and who would be elected by the juries of the city and the kingdom, the equivalent of today's Palma councilors or council members. They were to examine and adjudicate disputes between merchants, captains, and sailors regarding cargoes or ship charters, sailors' wages, or goods lost or missing during voyages. Everything had to be done verbally, without having to leave a written record, which, in those times of almost total illiteracy, was not too surprising.
Almost two decades later, with the Kingdom of Majorca reintegrated into the Crown of Aragon, the new monarch, Peter the Ceremonious, established new regulations in 1343, adding a third actor: the appeals judge, to hear appeals against the sentences of both consuls. He also stipulated that the Consulate would be governed by the rules of the Consulate of Valencia. In Menorca, this function was entrusted to a mayor or royal official. The regulations in use were compiled in a single volume: the Consulate Book
Gradually, the consuls of the sea expanded their powers. King Martin extended them to the entire commercial sphere, not just maritime trade. Alfonso the Magnanimous went a step further: they could judge any dispute as long as one of the parties was a merchant, even if the other was not. This was unheard of at the time, because both clergy and nobles enjoyed their own jurisdiction. But, before the Consolat de Mar, they did not: they had to submit to it. The influence of the merchants' collective—what we would now call a lobby—was so great that, gradually, they gained control of the Consulate. There wasn't much difference between the court and the merchants' guild. They shared the same space: the Palma Exchange.
No Catalan interpreters in England
Around 1454, the practice of appointing consuls by decree was replaced by a new system: the 'bag and lot' method. This involved placing the names of those eligible into a bag, and then drawing the name of the lucky seven-year-old boy. In fact, there were two bags: one for citizens—only those of high standing, of course—and another for merchants. A consul was chosen from each group. This excluded shipowners and sailors, who, naturally, complained, to no avail. The Consulate of the Sea should have been called the Consulate of the Market.
The international reach of trade from the Canary Islands meant that a good number of these cases involved foreigners. In 1653, an Englishman begged the Consulate to please translate his documents—now that written records were being kept—into Castilian Spanish, because he couldn't find Catalan interpreters in his country, which was obviously the language of the administration in the Islands at the time.
Back then, the concept of the lawfareOr at least it wasn't called that; but certainly, from time to time, suspicions of bias arose toward one of the judges, or toward both. What was done in these cases? One or two more members were added to the court to guarantee its objectivity. Although this couldn't entail an increase in expenses; the salaries corresponding to the two judges had to be divided among all of them. In fact, there were certain figures, the leading citizens, who advised the consuls before they handed down their sentences. They had voice and vote; no decision could be made on cases without taking their opinion into consideration. They would be the equivalent of juries in our time, although it can also be considered that they had a function similar to that of modern-day experts. Not even the Nueva Planta decrees of Philip V, which abolished the rest of the local institutions, could overcome the Consulate or, rather, the powerful lobby of the merchants. Now, the Royal Audiencia, under royal authority, took over the selection of judges, and from 1740 onward, all documentation had to be written in Castilian Spanish—"We're in Spain!" as they would say now. For the enlightened minds of the late 18th century, that court was an antiquated relic. And indeed, in 1800 it was replaced by a new institution: the Royal Consulate of Sea and Land. It didn't last long either, because in 1829 it was replaced by a Provincial Board of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. The successor entities, for now, are the Chamber of Commerce and the Port Authority. Of the Consulate, like Umberto Eco's rose, only its name remains. And a building.
School, nursery, torture station, museum, and movement headquarters
Surprisingly, the building we call the Consolat de Mar, on the Sagrera promenade in Palma, never housed the institution that existed under that name from 1326 to 1800. The first headquarters of the maritime judges was, most likely, the same building as the University—the governing institution of the city and the kingdom—that is, the antic. Later, due to their ties with the College of Merchant Arts, they moved to the Palco, under rather precarious conditions. In fact, the sessions took place at a table in the building designed by Guillem Sagrera.
Next to the Lonja, until the 17th century, there existed, according to the chronicler Antoni Pons, "an extensive garden, populated with orange trees, decorated with columns and statues, and a striking spring in the center." Most of these wonders disappeared—the neighborhood movement of today would have been outraged, and rightly so—to make way for what is now the seat of the Presidency of the Government, erected between 1614 and 1669, although the chapel is somewhat earlier, dating from 1600.
The new building was intended to house ancillary offices for the Lonja (exchange). It wasn't until 1800, with the creation of the new—and short-lived—Consulate of Sea and Land, that the court moved into this building, which it then named. During this period, the elliptical staircase and the chapter house, where the Governing Council meets today, were constructed. Later, it housed its successor: the Provincial Board of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce.
Early 20th-century photographs offer a rather curious view of the Consolat de Mar's façade, right at the foot of the loggia, because there is no door. The reason is that, until that time, the walls of Palma stood there. Access was therefore through what is now the rear section, via the Plaça de les Drassanes. The Madrid architect Isidro González Velázquez – who also designed the Fountain of the Turtles – created a new façade, which was never built.
With the Consulate and the Junta gone, the building served a variety of purposes: the Schools of Commerce and Teacher Training, a nursery, the Maritime Museum, a torture center for Republicans during the 1936 coup, a barracks, and the headquarters of the Provincial Directorate of the Movement. Finally, in 1980, the then-president of the pre-autonomy government, Jeroni Albertí, secured its transfer from the Minister of Culture, Ricardo de la Cierva. The ground floor was slated to house a maritime museum, but this never materialized.
Information prepared from texts by Román Piña Homs, Guillermo Morro, Pablo Cateura Bennáser, Miguel Ángel Casasnovas, Gerard Mora Ferragut, Martín Lucena, Bartolomé Bestard, María Barceló, Ricardo Urgel, Joan Mas Quetglas and the Photos Antiguas de Mallorca (FAM) collective.
![Maritime façade of the Consolat de Mar, with the Plaza de las Drassanes in the background.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 6171 4114"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
