The fifth centenary of the European discovery of America has spawned a wide range of publications, from comics and children’s books at one extreme to major research monographs at the other. The significant contributions toward the serious end of the spectrum include the Colecciones MAPFRE 1492, a projected series of 280 volumes (divided into 19 collections) of which some 200 were in print by October 1992. This volume appears in the collection titled, rather vaguely, Realidades Americanas, and, like the majority of the works in the series as a whole, reflects clear, solid, persuasive, value-for-money synthesis rather than the fruits of primary research. (In making these comments the reviewer declares a slight interest, as the author of a parallel volume in the América 92 collection.)
The structure of this volume is relatively straightforward and satisfying. It begins with a conventional survey of the period up to 1550, concentrating on, first, an explanation of the extremely varied economic bases of preconquest indigenous society from Middle America to the Southern Cone; and second, a rather brief analysis of the economic aspects of the encomienda system, the construction of new internal markets in the aftermath of conquest, and the integration of these new structures with transatlantic trade. The more detailed second section covers the period from the mid-sixteenth century to 1630 with both thematic and regional examinations. The former includes a clear discussion of the relationship between mining and urbanization; and the latter concentrates, naturally enough, on New Spain, the Caribbean, and the Andean axis. The Río de la Plata is considered only tangentially in the Andean discussion and, to some extent, in the section on Brazil.
The third part of the volume, devoted to a discussion of “Autonomy and Contraband (1630-1720),” identifies the later Hapsburg period as one in which the Spanish monarchy, as the title indicates, lost a large measure of economic and fiscal authority in America as a consequence of challenges and pressures both internal and external. The fourth and final section, covering the period 1720-1810, concentrates on the efforts of the new Bourbon dynasty to reestablish peninsular control over America, primarily by promoting free trade. Again, general themes are considered first, and then the analysis proceeds to a region-based discussion. The volume concludes with a detailed, annotated bibliography. Taken as a whole, it contains relatively little, if anything, that is new; but by the same token it is a handy summary of both traditional and recent scholarship.
