This excellent book is a detailed analysis of the viceregency of Martín Enríquez in New Spain, from 1568 to 1583, a crucial period in the transformation of colonial Mexico. During the Enríquez tenure, Philip II imposed the alcabala, almojarifazgo, and bulas de santa cruzada for the first time. Adding a new sala del crimen to the Audiencia of Mexico, the king was determined to secure loyal, subservient oidores and alcaldes for that important institution. Enríquez became responsible for strengthening the real patronato, for secularizing parishes served by regulars, and for reducing the power of the regular clergy in general. Philip II also ordered reform of the real hacienda. There was to be investigation and auditing of the caja accounts, collection of debts owing the treasury, and appointment of competent persons with financial expertise to treasury offices. Mining, agriculture, and pastoral activity also required new regulations to meet the needs of a rapidly changing colonial society and to ensure larger tax revenues for a needy king. In this regard, a virulent epidemic of cocoliste significantly affected Enríquez’s plans for change. During his tenure John Hawkins and Francis Drake ravaged the coasts of New Spain—and elsewhere—while the northerly expansion of Mexico brought more violent confrontations with the Chichimecas. García-Abasolo sees Enríquez as a vigorous, perceptive administrator who effectively balanced royal interests with those of his several colonial constituencies.
This first-rate monograph was exhaustively researched and is methodologically sophisticated in its approach (see chapter 2 on the epidemic). Only a few minor criticisms seem warranted. Most significant, the book needs a final summing up, an assessment of Enríquez’s successes and failures within the context of reforms he was charged with putting into place in New Spain in 1568. This would help mold the discrete chapters into a more integrated whole. Also, García-Abasolo tends to view the Enríquez era in a self-contained microcosm and fails to look forward or backward often enough to put the period 1568-83 in greater historical perspective. Otherwise, this is an extremely valuable contribution. As one in a series of books being edited by Antonio Heredia Herrera and being sponsored by the Diputación de Sevilla to honor the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, this work and the others in the series are ensuring that something of lasting scholarly value will stem from the Columbian celebration.
