In the Spanish monarchy, corporations, religious orders, and other petitioners kept procurators in Madrid to lobby the royal councils on their behalf. Drawing on an efficient network of information, the Madrid-based Jesuit procurators were known for their insistence on solving the financial and personnel needs of several missions throughout the New World. This article analyzes a series of petitions composed by Antonio Ruiz de Montoya in the late 1630s on behalf of Jesuit missions in Paraguay. These missions had been harassed by Portuguese slavers, who captured tens of thousands of natives in this region. Ruiz de Montoya's petitions reveal that the Jesuits’ lobbying actions had a much greater impact than has been assumed. Far from confining themselves to asking for material and human resources for the missions, the Jesuits proposed that the Spanish crown make a large-scale intervention in the administration of Portuguese domains in the South Atlantic, a program that Madrid would have implemented were it not for Portuguese independence in 1640.

在西班牙君主制国家，企业、宗教团体和其他请愿者在马德里派驻检察官代表他们游说皇家委员会。马德里的耶稣会检察官利用高效的信息网络，坚持解决新大陆多个传教团的财务和人员需求。本文分析了安东尼奥·鲁伊斯·德蒙托亚 (Antonio Ruiz de Montoya) 在 1630 年代末代表巴拉圭耶稣会传教士撰写的一系列请愿书。这些使团受到葡萄牙奴隶贩子的骚扰，他们俘虏了该地区数万名当地人。鲁伊斯·德蒙托亚的请愿书表明，耶稣会士的游说行动产生的影响比人们想象的要大得多。远非仅限于为任务索取物质和人力资源，