Crisis in an Atlantic Empire: Spain and New Spain, 1808-1810

by Barbara H. Stein, Stanley J. Stein

Overview

The capstone of a research endeavor begun by Barbara Stein and Stanley Stein nearly sixty years ago, this volume concludes their masterful tetralogy on Spanish economic and Atlantic history.

With a compelling narrative that weaves together story and thesis and brings to life immense archival research and empirical data, Crisis in an Atlantic Empire is a finely grained historical tour of the period covering 1808 to 1810, which is often called “the age of revolutions.”

The study examines an accumulation of countervailing elements in a spasm of imperial crisis, as Spain and its major colony New Spain struggled to preserve traditional structures of exchange—Spain's transatlantic trade system—with Caribbean ports at Veracruz and Havana in wartime after 1804. Rooted in the struggle between businessmen seeking to expand their economic reach and the ruling class seeking to maintain its hegemonic control, the crisis sheds light on the contest between free trade and monopoly trade and the politics of preservation among an enduring and influential interest group: merchants.

Reflecting the authors’ masterful use of archival sources and their magisterial knowledge of the era’s complex metropolitan and colonial institutions, this volume is the capstone of a research endeavor spanning nearly sixty years.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421414249
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/30/2014
Series:	The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science , #131
Pages:	808
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 2.12(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Barbara H. Stein (1916-2005) was an independent historian and former bibliographer for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal at Princeton University's Firestone Library.

Stanley J. Stein is the Walter S. Carpenter Professor in Spanish Civilization and Culture, Emeritus, at Princeton University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Prologue 1

Part 1 Metropole

1 A National Drama, Act II: Aranjuez 7

2 Bayonne 45

3 Dos de Mayo: Insurgency 75

4 Sevilla: The Struggle for Supremacy in Spain and New Spain 94

Part 2 Colony

5 A Contested Authority 131

6 New Spain's Cuban Counterpoint 162

7 The Powerful and Insecure: Mexico City's Almaceneros, 1808 191

8 The Audiencia de México, Iturrigaray, and Talamantes 214

9 Melchor Talamantes: Criollo Exponent of New Spain's Interests 240

10 Sevilla's Comisionados and Mexico City's Juntas 256

11 Viceroy Iturrigaray: CRIOLLOS and a Viceroy's Grand Design 296

12 Anatomy of a Colonial Coup d'État: Mexico City, 1808 325

Part 3 Metropole

13 Junta de Sevilla, Consejo de Castilla, and the Genesis of the Junta Central 361

14 Junta Central: Ideologues and Ideology 378

15 Junta Central versus Junta de Sevilla: The Colonial Question 403

16 Financing the Resistance in Spain 430

17 Dissolution of the Junta Central 454

18 Regencia and Junta de Cadiz 466

19 The Pivotal ORDEN of 17 May 1810 490

20 Colonial Insurrection and the Call for the Cortes 529

Part 4 Colony

21 An Eroding Colonial System: New Spain, 1808-1810 555

22 Fissures in the Colonial Elite: Merchants 572

23 Eire under the Embers: Between Preemptive Coup and Insurrection 587

24 The Regencia's COMISIONADOS and Bishop-Elect Abad y Queipo 614

25 Oprimidos y Opresores 631

26 "No Hay Más Recurso Que Ir a Coger Gachupines" 653

Conclusion 661

Notes 665

Bibliography 759

Index 773

What People are Saying About This

Christopher Schmidt-Nowara

Taken together, the four works are a vital reference point for the study of the Hispanic Atlantic in its period of resurgence and crisis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Crisis in an Atlantic Empire is a fine culmination, a gripping, learned, and revelatory work that makes the reader look anew at the Hispanic world in the age of revolution.

From the Publisher

Taken together, the four works are a vital reference point for the study of the Hispanic Atlantic in its period of resurgence and crisis in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Crisis in an Atlantic Empire is a fine culmination, a gripping, learned, and revelatory work that makes the reader look anew at the Hispanic world in the age of revolution.
—Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Prince of Asturias Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization, Tufts University

Editorial Reviews

In a sophisticated, literate, and detailed analysis, eminent historians Barbara Stein and Stanley Stein dissect the interwoven responses between 1808 and 1810 in Spain and New Spain (Mexico) to the challenges resulting from Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian peninsula and the Bourbon monarchs' abdications. . . Based heavily on extensive archival and published primary sources, this deftly argued, magisterial work, along with its three preceding volumes—Silver, Trade, and War; Apogee of Empire; and Edge of Crisis—belongs in every academic and large public library. Essential.
—Choice

This book is a gold mine for the sheer amount of primary sources brought to the surface. . .[and] a valuable contribution to the shelf of any historian dealing with the independence era in any of the Spanish colonies.
—H-Net Reviews

The authors' research is clear and meticulous, with extensive quotes from sources in Spanish and French . . . it is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in European expansion, Atlantic maritime competence, and Hispanic revolutions.
—The Historian

Stein and stein leave is a fascinating account of the entangled relations between money and power, between Europe and the Americas on the eve of economic liberalism. This meticulous study of policy making under duress may have an underlying structural argument about the brittleness of the Spanish ancient regime, but it never loses sight of the contingencies and complexities of rulership. It is a tour de force.
—The Canadian Journal of HistoryAnnales

From the Publisher

Stein and stein leave is a fascinating account of the entangled relations between money and power, between Europe and the Americas on the eve of economic liberalism. This meticulous study of policy making under duress may have an underlying structural argument about the brittleness of the Spanish ancient regime, but it never loses sight of the contingencies and complexities of rulership. It is a tour de force.

The Canadian Journal of HistoryAnnales

This book is a gold mine for the sheer amount of primary sources brought to the surface. . .[and] a valuable contribution to the shelf of any historian dealing with the independence era in any of the Spanish colonies.

H-Net Reviews

The authors' research is clear and meticulous, with extensive quotes from sources in Spanish and French . . . it is a book that belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in European expansion, Atlantic maritime competence, and Hispanic revolutions.

The Historian

In a sophisticated, literate, and detailed analysis, eminent historians Barbara Stein and Stanley Stein dissect the interwoven responses between 1808 and 1810 in Spain and New Spain (Mexico) to the challenges resulting from Napoleon's invasion of the Iberian peninsula and the Bourbon monarchs' abdications. . . Based heavily on extensive archival and published primary sources, this deftly argued, magisterial work, along with its three preceding volumes—Silver, Trade, and War; Apogee of Empire; and Edge of Crisis—belongs in every academic and large public library. Essential.

Choice