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 exchangeSpain's transatlantic trade systemwith 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 eras complex metropolitan and colonial institutions, this volume is the capstone of a research endeavor spanning nearly sixty years. Edge of Crisis: War and Trade in the Spanish Atlantic, 17891808Hardcover edition published in 2009, 978-0-8018-9046-8 Apogee of Empire: Spain and New Spain in the Age of Charles III, 17591789 Hardcover edition published in 2003, 978-0-8018-7339-3 Silver, Trade, and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern EuropeHardcover edition published in 2000, 978-0-8018-6135-2Paperback edition published in 2003, 978-0-8018-7755-1
Prologue Part One: Metropole 1. A National Drama, Act II: Aranjuez 2. Bayonne 3. Dos de Mayo: Insurgency 4. Sevilla: The Struggle for Supremacy in Spain and New Spain Part Two: Colony 5. A Contested Authority 6. New Spain's Cuban Counterpoint 7. The Powerful and Insecure: Mexico City'sAlmaceneros, 1808 191 8. The Audiencia de México, Iturrigaray, and Talamantes 9. Melchor Talamantes: Criollo Exponent of New Spain's Interests 10. Sevilla's Comisionados and Mexico City's Juntas 11. Viceroy Iturrigaray: Criollos and a Viceroy's Grand Design 12. Anatomy of a Colonial Coup d'État: Mexico City, 1808 Part Three: Metropole 13. Junta de Sevilla, Consejo de Castilla, and the Genesis of the Junta Central 14. Junta Central: Ideologues and Ideology 15. Junta Central versus Junta de Sevilla: The Colonial Question 16. Financing the Resistance in Spain 17. Dissolution of the Junta Central 18. Regencia and Junta de Cadiz 19. The Pivotal Orden of 17 May 1810 20. Colonial Insurrection and the Call for the Cortes Part Four: Colony 21. An Eroding Colonial System: New Spain, 18081810 22. Fissures in the Colonial Elite: Merchants 23. Fire under the Embers: Between Preemptive Coup and Insurrection 24. The Regencia's Comisionados and Bishop-Elect Abad y Queipo 25. Oprimidos y Opresores 26. ""No Hay Más Recurso Que Ir a Coger Gachupines"" Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
""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.""
