A number of scholarly books and articles in recent years have examined political and economic institutions in the late colonial period, particularly with reference to the positions and activities of peninsulars and creoles and the relationships between them. This monograph, based on extensive archival research, adds another dimension to these significant studies. It also takes its place alongside other works on municipal government, filling a gap for New Spain.
In successive chapters the author discusses: basic socioeconomic characteristics of Puebla, its inhabitants, and the surrounding area; the composition and recruitment of the municipal council (cabildo); its offices and organization; the council’s control over the urban economy; members’ use of their official positions to advance their social and economic interests; relations between the cabildo and the Governor-Intendant; and the reaction of the municipal council to the political events of 1808-1810.
Liehr explains the tensions within the elite between creoles and peninsulars, and he emphasizes the mobility within the elite. In the mid-eighteenth century cabildo offices were in the hands of a few families, the positions achieved by inheritance or purchase. But offices changed hands frequently because of the changing economic fortunes of families. The council members were not descendants of conquerors, but later arrivals. Furthermore, positions were increasingly filled by election in the late colonial period. Thus, the council was not a closed class or aristocracy, but a mobile group fully representative of the urban oligarchy. Individual council members were often involved in multiple economic activities, a fact the author attributes to economic stagnation. Vacancies and elections, the mobility Liehr emphasizes, were also related to changing economic status.
The author explains that inhabitants considered themselves members of corporations, and that corporate membership was decisive in determining one’s position in society. The creoles defended their interests and had their representation in the cabildo and militia. Municipal offices conferred social prestige and political influence, and members used their responsibilities over funds, price-fixing, the Albóndiga and Pósito, and meat-supplying to benefit their interests, despite royal restrictions to prevent abuses.
Bourbon creation of intendancies led to continuing disputes between the Governor-Intendant and council members because of a lack of clearly defined boundaries of authority, personality conflicts, and antagonism deriving from social and economic interests. Many worthwhile reforms proposed by the Governor-Intendant failed because of jealousy and because the councilmen could not see the usefulness of reforms, but only what they would cost.
The Puebla council sought to take advantage of the crisis in Spain in 1808 and the indecisiveness of the viceroy to increase its independence of superior authority. Then, in the wake of the Hidalgo rebellion in 1810, the councilmen, wanting to preserve their property and privileges, joined with the crown and peninsulars to maintain the existing social system.
Although Liehr goes over some familiar ground and confirms conclusions of other scholars, his study is important for its analysis of a single municipal government and of the oligarchy that dominated it.
