Christoph Rosenmüller’s latest contribution is a straightforward commentary on an era through the life of a Mexican viceroy, Juan Francisco Güemes (1746–55). He carefully contextualizes Güemes’s ascent to power, including his joining the army in 1700, fighting in Italy and North Africa and governing Havana, and joining the Council of War in 1763 after zealously promoting important reforms in the New World context.
As viceroy, his roles varied. As chief administrator and representative of the king of Spain and metropolis in Mexico, he served as an imperfect font of justice and protector of the native populations. In meticulous detail, Rosenmüeller documents how Güemes secularized the Catholic Church to better control the regulars, replacing 109 doctrinas with parishes and bishop-controlled clergy. His account of the reform of the alcabala (sales tax) administration shows how the state gradually ended tax-farming and took over collection of the revenues, resulting in significant gains for the royal treasury. A review of the Guadalajara Treasury deduced corruption and also benefited the king’s purse. The state’s takeover of the silver mine of Bolaños ended with mixed results.
In addition, the imposition of all of these top-down, imposed reforms exposed the resistance of the clergy to the secularization, of the consulado over the alcabala changes, and of various cabildos (town councils) over the increasing centralization. Rosenmüeller exposes the pervasive corruption that in the era sometimes was unremarkable as expected traditional practices, such as gift-giving in exchange for favoritism, patronage, and expedited paperwork. His analysis is particularly good on judicial wrangling and negotiation, corruption in the form of tax evasion and bribery and the apparent use of strawmen, outright fraud (in the administration of mercury sales), influence peddling, and collusion with friends and officials. Of personal interest is his brief but clear analysis of the Hat and Cloak rebellion as a reason behind the expulsion of the Jesuit order from the empire in 1767.
This book’s most important overall point is that the so-called Bourbon reforms pre-date the administration of Charles III. The text is ripe for classroom use with an appendix with short biographies of important actors in the story and a glossary. This is an elite story, which deepens our understanding of the period and builds on the author’s previous work.
