Ever since they were expelled in 1767, controversy has raged about the Jesuit establishment of 30 missions (reducciones) in the Río de la Plata, which at their apogee in 1732 accommodated 141,000 people, an estimated 85 per cent of all Guaraní at the time. Their demographic and economic significance was considerable. In 1745, the population of just one mission, Yapeyú, was more than half of that of Buenos Aires and their main tradable product, yerba mate, was sold throughout the region and as far away as Potosí and Chile. Popular literature over the subsequent centuries has regurgitated the erroneous beliefs that they were either a socialist paradise of communal living or a sort of tropical gulag. In this fierce and sterile debate, ironically there has been agreement on both sides of the fence that the experiment imploded as soon as the Jesuits left. This was allegedly because the Indians fled back to the forests for fear of corrupt Spanish overseers or because they simply could not cope on their own. This book explodes these myths, which are still widely held in contemporary Paraguay. On the one hand the author tells us that ‘Although often viewed as models of socialism or communism, the Guaraní missions were not egalitarian’ (p. 73), and shows that special status was granted to cabildo members and the native elite. On the other, the author finds little support for the central argument of the anti-Jesuit campaign led by the Marquis of Pombal that they had exploited the Guaraní through excessively hard work. Instead, she emphasises considerable ‘agency’ by the Guaranís in spite of high levels of illiteracy, ever seeking to ‘manipulate the institutions of European imperialism’ (p. 12) to further their own interests, even to the point of influencing the choice of sites for new missions.

This is not yet another political history of the mission experience. Instead Sarreal provides the first long-term analysis of the changing socio-economic structure of the missions. Reference is made to political events such as the Treaty of Madrid and the Guaraní Wars only insofar as they impacted on the economy and society of the reducciones and on relations between the Guaraní and the Jesuits and Crown. She traces their growing economic strength, from the creation of the first mission at San Ignacio Guazú in 1609 through their peak in the mid-eighteenth century until their abolition at the start of the nineteenth century. Using extensive archival research into seventeenth-century accounting records (such records are not available for the sixteenth century) she sheds new light on the reasons for their eventual demise after 1767. She offers a fascinating account of daily life and the work schedule in the missions, including a description of how the crucial distinction between tupambae (communal work) and amambae (private work) operated in practice. In her detailed explanation of the administrative structure, headed by only two priests per mission, she shows how the Guaranís facilitated mission governance through their appointment as corregidores and cabildo members, while emphasising that cacique lineage was itself insufficient for elevation to such leadership positions. A recurrent theme throughout is the overwhelming importance of cattle herds, both wild and domesticated, to the mission economy, with meat production used as a means of overcoming crop shortages, and sales of hides as a major source of revenue, especially after 1767.

With a nuanced style and crisp language devoid of sociological jargon, she marshals a wealth of archival data to present a clear picture of the limited economic solvency of the missions, which was highly dependent on hidden subsidies on costs (fixed stipends of the Jesuits) and revenues (royal tax exemptions). The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 led to a clear separation of temporal and religious affairs in the missions and a consequent increase in overall costs. The arrival of the many Spanish administrators, now paid at market wages, led to a tripling of administrative expenses (p. 128). The exorbitant commissions on hide sales for the administrator (8 per cent) and hide contractors (10 per cent), coupled with the ending of special marketing privileges, placed an intolerable financial burden on the missions, as evidenced by growing tax arrears. Contrary to the myth of ‘massive flight’ in response to alleged rampant corruption and extreme exploitation by the Spanish, it was the above constellation of interrelated factors that led to a slow but albeit steady decline through asset depletion and a growing labour shortage explained by the attraction of opportunities for wage labour outside the missions. During this post-1767 period, Sarreal presents persuasive evidence that agency by the Guaranís was arguably even stronger than before. Her examination of how the Guaraní coped during this 30-year period is based on a detailed analysis of archival records from three representative missions (San Juan Bautista, Concepción and La Cruz).

The market-based reforms introduced in 1767 by Francisco Bucareli, the governor of Río de la Plata, through liberalisation of trade and ‘contracting-out’ of their administration, were designed to place the missions on a firm economic footing. Instead, as the author shows, they led to growing inequality among the Guaraní, as the safety-net of communal supplies dwindled to the detriment of widows, the elderly and orphans. Contrary to Bucereli's intention, the reforms gradually hastened the economic collapse of the missions and the eventual abolition of collective labour obligations in 1800–3. This experience necessarily draws parallels with the neo-liberal experience of privatisation in Latin America during the late twentieth century, an interesting comparison that the author handles deftly and without exaggeration.

The text is extremely well structured, with succinct concluding sections that summarise the central argument of each chapter. Such is its breadth and depth of coverage that this excellent book may be recommended both to the general reader as well as to the academic researcher as a key text for understanding the overall mission experience in the Río de la Plata region during the late-colonial period.