slight spine flex. minor cover edge wear.  a few small page edge tears. no marks on text. dustjacket tanned inside, torn at corners, and edges chipped, pealed, and spine ends torn off,

When Antonio María Bucareli took up his duties in 1771 as the forty-sixth viceroy of New Spain, he assumed command of a magnificent complexity of land areas, large and small, whose people constituted a cultural and social entity ranging from the traditional Apache to the European gentleman of the Enlightenment. He governed a key area at a significant time. Shortly before Bucareli's arrival in Mexico, José de Gálvez had completed an intensive inspection of the country, had instituted many reforms, and was ready to present the new viceroy with progressive policies for administrative reorganization. How Bucareli, a loyal, indefatigable Spanish aristocrat, reacted to the new order is the particular concern of this book. It examines the actions and reflections of this cautious and conservative man as they relate to certain major problems of his administration: defense, the colonization of the Californias, mining, the Roman Catholic Church, the interior provinces, and - above all - filling Spanish coffers with Mexican pesos as resurgent Spain strove to regain her former position in world affairs.  Bucareli, conservative by nature and training, continued to administer New Spain on the basis of a well-established and traditional system. Evidence of his success is the fact that revenues climbed steadily during his tenure. At the same time he won from people of all stations a degree of respect and affection far beyond that usually recorded a viceroy