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  • Reshaping New Spain: Government and Private Interests in the Colonial Bureaucracy, 1531-1550
  • Jeremy Baskes
Reshaping New Spain: Government and Private Interests in the Colonial Bureaucracy, 1531-1550. By Ethelia Ruiz Medrano. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2006. Pp. x, 320. Maps. Tables. Appendix. Glossary. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $65.00 cloth.

This translation of Ruiz Medrano's 1991 book explores the sometimes contradictory process of the introduction of Spanish rule in early colonial Mexico. In September 1530, the First Audiencia was dismissed due to its failures to protect the indigenous populations from the abuses of the encomenderos. Concerned with ensuring Spain's long-term interests in America, the Second Audiencia was empowered with "the strengthening of royal jurisdiction and attempting simultaneously to guarantee the survival of Indian society, revenue for the Royal Treasury, and the colonists' interests." According to the author, the Second Audiencia acquitted itself well despite these largely contradictory aims; royal authority, especially over the indigenous society, was centralized, royal revenues were augmented, and elite Spaniards were placated.

The 1535 arrival of Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza was supposed to further centralize power, but instead increased New Spain's autonomy and assisted the entrenchment of powerful Spaniards, both to the detriment of Indian society. Mendoza and other royal officials became important players in the expanding Mexican economy, forging alliances with powerful encomenderos, and using royal authority to promote economic development that benefited them directly. A detailed analysis of the extensive entrepreneurial activities of Oidor Lorenzo de Tejada illustrates well the rising corruption in New Spain. Appointed in 1537, Tejada grew wealthy utilizing the authority of his office to promote his economic interests. The author stresses that Tejada's abuses of his office gave him an advantage but that neither the activities in which he engaged nor the process by which he accumulated were [End Page 445] unique to royal officials. This book makes a very useful contribution to historians' understanding of the early colonial process.

Jeremy Baskes
Ohio Wesleyan University
Delaware, Ohio
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