Abstract

Consular institutions represent a main path in the study of State building, and the Spanish case offers up particularly interesting perspectives. Thanks to the researches carried out in the historical archives of the "Cortes" of Madrid, the article briefly highlights the development, reorganisation and institutionalisation of this function from a jurisdictional and operational points of view during the second half of XIX century. The changing role of the consuls follows the statement of a different concept of sovereignty of the Spanish State, also in terms of balance of powers between the Crown and the Parliament. The analysis allows also to better verifying how the consular professional career was built in the framework of an advanced administration system and in the interrelationship between commercial and political skills.