Hierarchy, Commerce, and Fraud in Bourbon Spanish America

A Postal Inspector's Expose

Ruth Hill

• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
• Year: 2006
• ISBN:
  9780826591975
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: History

Using El lazarillo de ciegos caminantes (the "Guide for Blind Rovers" by Alonso Carrio de Lavandera, the best known work of the era) as a jumping off point for a sprawling discussion of 18th-century Spanish America, Ruth Hill argues for a richer, more nuanced understanding of the relationship between Spain and its western colonies. Armed with primary sources including literature, maps, census data, letters, and diaries, Hill reveals a rich world of intrigue and artifice, where identity is surprisingly fluid and always in question. More importantly, Hill crafts a complex argument for reassessing our understanding of race and class distinctions at the time, with enormous implications for how we view conceptions of race and class today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index