Resumen de Information and power: the government of Catalonia and its minor committees (1700–13)

Eduard Martí Fraga

• The exercise of power is intimately related to the people who control the information process. Throughout the second half of the seventeenth century, the Generalitat of Catalonia tended to share information on the serious matters of the principality of Catalonia with the creation of specific minor committees (novenas and divuitenas). The recourse to minor committees can be explained by the desire to prevent the six deputies who ruled the Generalitat from the sole control of the information process and from making the most important decisions that were normally related to issues that impacted on the whole Catalan community. This process culminated in the period 1700–13. In this way the minor committees were more important and they had more decision making power, so much so that they almost replaced the deputies themselves. This article analyzes the type of information discussed in the committees and it explores the reasons for this. This article also examines the chronological process whereby the deputies shared information with the minor committees.