The "Maestre Racional", the minister in charge of the administration of each of the states or cities of the old Crown of Aragon, had an archive situated in the Royal Palace but distinguished from the Royal Archive (Archivo Real).

It was maintained there even after the suppression of the institution in 1714 until it was moved to the House of the General Bailiery (Casa de la Bailía General), in Sant Jaume's square, in 1819, where it joined the Archive of the Bailiery. The Regulation for the new floor, safekeeping and governing of the Archive of the General Bailiery of 1804 was obeyed. Thus, the Archive of the Maestre Racional was then incorporated to it, turning both buildings into a single whole called General Archive of the Royal Heritage (Archivo General del Real Patrimonio). Both archives have been together in one single institution, trying to maintain their fonds separated and differentiated since 1819. However, the mix of documentation during the transfers was unavoidable. The Archive of the Royal Heritage (Archivo del Real Patrimonio) experienced a long pilgrimage until it joined the ACA's headquarters because of several reasons: in 1823, when the House of the Bailiery was demolished, it was moved to the disentitled Convent of Saint John of Jerusalen. It was moved from there very soon due to the religious restoration, to a private home.

It was set up in the Modern Royal Palace in 1846, where it remained during the Revolutionary Six-Year Period despite the initiatives of moving it to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon (Archivo de la Corona de Aragón). When the Modern Royal Palace burnt in 1875, it was temporarily moved to La Llotja and, later, to an adjacent building to the Convent of Santa Mónica. The Corps of Archivists and Librarians (Cuerpo Facultativo de Archiveros y Bibliotecarios) took over the archive in 1910 and set it up in the old Diputation Palace, from where it was moved to another proper building in the Obispo Street in 1927. The Republic decided to incorporate it to the Archive of the Crown of Aragon in 1932 (art. 12 of the Spanish Law issued on the 22th May 1932). The Law came into effect in 1934 (Ordinance February 1) which led to the fonds' transfer to the ACA's headquarters in July 1936 before the Spanish Civil War. Even though there was a distinction between the two principal fonds, the one of the General Bailiery of Catalonia (Bailía General de Cataluña) –which continued operating during the 18th century and which was incorporated to the Intendancy, changing its name into General Bailiery of the Royal Heritage (Bailía General del Real Patrimonio)– and the one of the Maestre Racional, the fact of being collected for more than one century in one single archive suffering continuous transfers led to the unavoidable mix of documentation. Therefore, it is of difficult identification. In terms of the 18th century, the documentation from the office of the General Bailiery is also mixed with the documentation of other Intendancy offices whose fonds have been mostly lost (the corresponding part to the police and the army) or have been conserved in greater proportion (the corresponding part to the Tresaury within the Archive of the Provincial Delegation of Treasury (Archivo de la Delegación Provincial de Hacienda), nowadays at the ACA).