In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Hispanic American Historical Review 83.2 (2003) 385-386



[Access article in PDF]
Saltillo, 1770-1810: Town and Region in the Mexican North. By LESLIE S. OFFUTT. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001. Maps. Tables. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. xi, 277 pp. Cloth, $50.00.

Despite its location in the Mexican north, Saltillo, founded during the age of the Chichimeca wars of the mid-sixteenth century, is one of the older cities of Mexico. Looking at the settlement during the last decades of the eighteenth century, Offutt uses the careers and activities of politically important hacendados and merchants to construct a case for the importance of Saltillo in the region and in Mexican colonial history. Although she makes reference to a handful of more recent works throughout the book, her arguments, outlined in a brief introductory chapter, present a challenge primarily to the perspectives of François Chevalier and Herbert E. Bolton and the Boltonians—not exactly the most recent theoretical perspectives on the role of New Spain's northern frontier in colonial history. As a result, the rest of the book, although it provides useful information on the mercantile and landed elites of Saltillo, feels stilted and narrow, and the reader never does get a good sense of "town and region"—only of select merchants and landowners.

The mercantile sector gets attention first in a chapter that documents how the small merchant community of Saltillo closely mirrored patterns elsewhere in New Spain. She concludes that peninsular merchants, because they married into the local elite and made extensive investments locally, looked on the regional trading center as a permanent home rather than as a stepping stone to bigger and better things. The following chapters tackle issues of land ownership and use. A major handicap in these sections is the lack of substantial documentation on property size and production for the decades under study. In perhaps the best part of the book, chapter 4 presents three cases studies that provide a window on the activities, resources, and labor for three estates of varying sizes. Offutt concludes, not surprisingly, that while the operation of rural properties in the Saltillo region followed patterns for more central areas, they differed significantly in size and prosperity.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Saltillo's merchant elite had not only captured control of the local economy, but had also acquired the reins of power and status in the community. Offutt argues that the sale of town council posts increased because of crown pressure to raise revenue; a secondary effect was to increase the power of proprietary officeholders over elective ones. Combined with the Bourbon effort to reorganize government under the intendencia system, which also produced local representatives tied to the community, the movement away from elected offices served to further highlight the status and wealth of the powerful merchant group.

A very brief final chapter advances the principal conclusion that on the eve of the Mexican War of Independence Saltillo more closely resembled central portions of the viceroyalty than it did hinterlands to the north. Unlike other parts of New [End Page 385] Spain, where trouble was brewing as a result of growing economic ills, a wealthy and powerful merchant elite, consistent economic and demographic growth, and increased and more efficient royal administration made Saltillo a bright spot in the imperial landscape.

Although Saltillo, 1770-1810 adds a northern, nonmining perspective to the field of late-colonial business history, it does not significantly enhance our knowledge of Saltillo as a community, an expectation created by the book's title. There remains much to say on how Saltillo functioned as a Spanish colonial community and how the northeast fit into the late colonial imperial framework. Offutt's work hints at some of the directions for future research.

 



Jesus F. de la Teja
Southwest Texas State University

...

pdf

Share