José de Gálvez, Visitor-General of New Spain, 1765-1771 , by  Herbert Ingraham Priestley . University of California  Publications in History, H. Morse Stephens and Herbert  E. Bolton, Editors. University of California Press, Berkeley,  1916. Pp. xi, 449.

Aside from being an account of the inspection (visita) of New Spain and her northern provinces by José de Gálvez from 1765 to 1771, Mr. Priestley's book is a veritable encyclopedia of Spanish colonial administration. It is quite the most substantial and massive thing that has been done in this subject up to the present, and is made possible by the unrivaled facilities which the University of California enjoys for the utilization of the documents existing in Spain, not only in the local field but in the larger and more closely related one of Spanish colonial history. Although the activities of Gálvez as described in this volume are chiefly concerned with New Spain and its northern frontier provinces, the institutions and practices which are described so clearly and in such an interesting manner were characteristic of the entire colonial empire of Spain from Peru to California, and will be of interest to all students of Latin-American history and government in Spain, Mexico and South America, as well as in the United States. This book is of such merit, and of such consequence are the problems which it discusses, that the volume should be translated into Spanish for the more general convenience of our Spanish-speaking contemporaries.

Although the main contribution of the work is to be found from Chapters IV to IX, inclusive, for therein the visitation itself is described from documentary sources hitherto unused, the first three chapters, as well as the last, are of great value to the all-too-often confused student of Spanish colonial institutions. In his Introduction, Mr. Priestley gives his work a quality of completeness by sketching the life of Gálvez, supplying the earlier and later details of his career which are not identified with his six years of service in New Spain.

The first three chapters serve as introductory to the general subject of the visitation. The first gives a general survey of the Spanish empire at the time of the Bourbons, illustrating the need of reform, financial and administrative, resulting from the rack and ruin inflicted by the incompetence and extravagance of the Hapsburgs. This is concerned with the leading motive of the visitation: to bring about more efficiency of administration and more revenue. This chapter contains some very useful data compiled from a report of the Junta Comercial in 1765 on the weakness of the commercial system, with suggestions for reform. In his second chapter Mr. Priestley gives a summary view of the government of New Spain and its relation to and administration from Spain. This chapter is, in effect, a well-connected series of definitions, accompanied by brief historical summaries, of the political, judicial, ecclesiastical, economic and financial institutions of New Spain. The third chapter furnishes a history of the institution and practice of the visitation, showing its origin in Spain and its subsequent employment in New Spain from 1526 onward. In these first three chapters original sources are generously used whenever available, but it may be noted that the author, like other modern writers and students of Spanish colonial history, has felt justified in making frequent use of the works of H. H. Bancroft and Arthur Helps.

It is really in the five following chapters that the real contribution is made, utilizing chiefly the documents recently obtained from Spain. So well have these sources been used that in no part of this section can the criticism of overdocumentation be made (and seldom is it made except by those who are unable or indisposed to make use of original documents). The treatment of the tobacco monopoly and its administration is original. We note also as typical the struggles which arose between a viceroy, who did not wish to be disturbed in his pleasant and profitable state of isolation, and a zealous reformer, keen to bring the government to the highest point of efficiency. This is an old story in Spain's colonies. In the same manner we are instructed by the data furnished us on the administration of the customs at Vera Cruz, the amount of smuggling done not only by foreigners but by the faithful subjects of the king of Spain. Here we see in full swing the official corruption which was the ruination of the Spanish colonial empire and is still the curse of Spanish government.

Three chapters deal with phases of the frontier problem. The sixth shows that Gálvez played an important part “in planning and executing the coup” connected with the expulsion of the Jesuits. In describing the revolutions and revolts which followed and the reign of terror initiated by Gálvez, Mr. Priestley admits that his hero had many defects, and among them were over-severity and mercilessness. The seventh chapter describes Gálvez's efforts to pacify the Indians and to bring about the settlement of the northern frontier. In connection with the California expedition of 1769, it is refreshing to note the absence of the customary beatification of Fr. Junipero Serra. Mr. Priestley credits Gálvez with being the initiator of this plan to guarantee and insure the security of the northern frontier, and he summarizes this topic with the assertion that California constitutes a lasting monument to Gálvez in the western hemisphere. The next chapter discusses the Indian problem further and particularly the Sonora expedition. Gálvez is compelled to leave his work incomplete because of illness and insanity. A brief outline of the plan of intendancies as worked out by Gálvez follows, together with a description of the comandancia general. In the ninth, and the concluding chapter dealing with the visitation occurs an account of Gálvez's efforts to reform the customs at Acapulco, and the story ends with the return of the visitor to Spain. Throughout the volume we may note that Gálvez was not given a free hand in his work in New Spain; obstacles were continually placed in his way by the reactionary element in Mexico and in Spain, and among the latter may be included the highest officials of the government. The besetting evil which was continually gnawing at the vitals of the whole colonial system was graft, and in this participated officials of high and low estate: those who enjoyed the confidence of the government as well as those who were under suspicion.

The last chapter, and for the purposes of the student of spanish colonization probably the most useful, is a compendium of colonial finance, covering the period immediately preceding as well as following the visitation of Gálvez. We are shown the amount and extent of the revenue derived from precious metals down to 1789, and the author has indeed performed a service in placing this data before us in readable and accessible form, although it is to be noted that he is indebted to the admirable work of Fonseca y Urrutia for much of the matter presented. The perplexing matter of tribute is dealt with, salable offices, medias anatas, excises, tithes, and, indeed, thirty different forms of colonial revenue are described.

The book is well edited. It contains an adequate bibliography of manuscript and printed sources and an appendix, giving a translation of the most important original document used in the book: the instructions issued to Gálvez by the Spanish monarch in 1765. The book contains six maps and two illustrations. Notable among the former is a Jesuit Map of California of 1757, and a map of the proposed Intendancy of California of 1770.

Charles H. Cunningham .

How to cite:
Cunningham, Charles H., "José de Gálvez, Visitor-General of New Spain, 1765-1771", Volume 021, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 214 - 217. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v021/n2/review_56.html
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