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Description of  Viceroy G emes s Mexico: Rituals, Religion, and Revenue (Di logos Series)

0826365892 pdf Viceroy Gemes's Mexico: Rituals, Religion, and Revenue examines the career of Juan Francisco Gemes y Horcasitas, viceroy of New Spain from 1746 to 1755. It provides the best account yet of how the colonial reform process most commonly known as the Bourbon Reforms did not commence with the arrival of Jos de Glvez, the visitador general to New Spain appointed in 1765. Rather, Gemes, ennobled as the conde de Revillagigedo in 1749, pushed through substantial reforms in the late 1740s and early 1750s, most notably the secularization of the doctrinas (turning parishes administering to Natives over to diocesan priests) and the state takeover of the administration of the alcabala tax in Mexico City. Both measures served to strengthen royal authority and increase fiscal revenues, the twin goals historians have long identified as central to the Bourbon reform project. Gemes also managed to implement these reforms without stirring up the storm of protest that attended the Glvez Read more