• 1 The idea that there was something called a “Benthamist sect”, as if it were a kind of Freemasonry, (...)

7These five works will undoubtedly shed light on how Bentham influenced some Hispanic American intellectuals and politicians, or how he was rejected by others. This influence reached the point where several of his followers behaved as if they were members of an enlightened sect.1 Conversely, for conservatives and the clergy, the rejection of Bentham’s ideas in many cases bordered on fanaticism. For those of us who have studied the subject, those intense divisive debates caused by Bentham’s thought both in his country and in distant lands are noteworthy. However, passionate love or hate did not prevent his ideas from being refashioned, and – depending on local interests and disputes – sometimes without respecting Bentham's system of thought. It goes without saying that while Bentham himself quite liked controversy and felt flattered by the interest his ideas generated in Latin America, he would have rejected some supporters for their dogmatic readings, and others for their defective method.

• 2 Darnton coined the concept of "book effect" to point out that the publishing world (which is more t (...)
• 3 “Understanding theory as a toolbox means that it is not about building a system but rather an instr (...)

10It is clear that someone could naively think that the subject has already been exhausted by the abundant literature on the subject. However, I will highlight three reasons why it is not so, in the hope of triggering a renewed interest in Bentham’s works and reception in Latin America. The first of them is because most of the literature on the subject relies Bentham’s books and treatises, but not so much on his very large correspondence, nor on his unpublished manuscripts, which are currently being unearthed by the Bentham Project scientific edition of the Collected Works. Both of these are casting another light on the English jurist: more than just a treatise writer, Bentham was a commendable and friendly correspondent, one who shared his ideas in a spirited manner in each letter he responded to, and many of his letters were addressed to Hispanic Americans or dealt with Hispanic American affairs. Now, without confusing the socio-political effect of books with that of a private correspondence,2 it could be said, with reason, that treatises actually end up being general constructions of ideas articulated in a more complex way, ideas that took shape, among others, through the correspondence received and sent, in the true logic of the epistolary genre. Scholars, who venture into this new avenue of research, need to understand the process of secularization of letter-writing from the middle of the 18th century, as well as the particularities of any correspondence and its influence among the Spanish-American political and cultural groups of the time who received and dispatched them. Indeed, the transformation of the epistolary genre as it was affected by the social practices of literacy were tremendous routes to channels ideas, which in turn contributed to shaping political events. Following a Foucauldian metaphor,3 correspondence can be viewed as a “boîte à outils” (“tool box”). This historical context points a very different way paper or electronic mail was issued, circulated and received at the time, as compared to today.

• 5 For instance: Gómez, Cristina, Navegar con libros. El comercio de libros entre España y Nueva Españ (...)
• 6 As Bourdieu states, the middle-person between the author and the reader, in this case the publisher (...)

12This requires researchers to recognize the specificities of the circulation of ideas in general and of the book trade in particular during the first half of the 19th century,5 in order to understand the strong role of brokers, not only in the distribution of ideas and works, but also in their transformation. Indeed, these middle-men and women were key factors in the circulation of certain topics that were amplified by readers, when they selected some texts or sections, leaving others aside, when they identified particular issues, and when they circulated texts and issues among elite readers who would then determine issues for discussion in the public space.6 And this process of transformation and adaptation of Bentham's work, begun by middle-men and women and continued by readers, was made possible on account of the loose relationship with sources and their authorship at the time. Indeed, these adaptations were considered necessary to better access the American market for ideas and books, which was different from the European one.

• 7 About the relationships and boundaries between the State and the Church.
• 8 Mannori, Luca y Sordi, Bernardo, Storia del diritto amministrativo, 2nd edn (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 20 (...)

13The third reason is that most of the works in relation to the Spanish-American reception of Bentham have focused on highlighting the acceptance or rejection of his philosophical ideas (that is, moral utilitarianism) in political and religious intellectual groups, more particularly in the debate on the "religious question",7 on whether or not utilitarian logic should govern the "science of the police"8 (that of public administration) or on whether or not certain works of English should be used as manuals for education university, especially for the formation of philosophers and lawyers, during the first years of the Spanish-American republics. But much remains to be said about the reception of his legal ideas in the debates among those who saw themselves more as jurists than politicians or religious followers.