This history of the political economy, social relations, and cultural debates that animated Spanish North America from 1500 until 1800 illuminates its centuries of capitalist dynamism and subsequent collapse into revolution.

List of Maps ix Prologue: Making Global History in the Spanish Empire 1 A Note on Terminology 27 Introduction: A New World: The Bajío, Spanish North America, and Global Capitalism 29 Part I. Making A New WorldThe Bajío and Spanish North America, 1500–1770 1. Founding the Bajío: Otomí Expansion, Chichimeca War, and Commercial Querétaro, 1500–1660 65 2. Forging Spanish North America: Northward Expansion, Mining Amalgamations, and Patriarchal Communities, 1590–1700 121 3. New World Revivals: Silver Boom, City Lives, Awakenings, and Northward Drives, 1680–1760 159 4. Reforms, Riots, and Repressions: The Bajío in the Crisis of the 1760s 228 Part II. Forging Atlantic CapitalismThe Bajío, 1770–1810 5. Capitalist, Priest, and Patriarch: Don José Sánchez Espinosa and the Great Family Enterprises of Mexico City, 1780–1810 263 6. Production, Patriarchy, and Polarization in the Cities: Guanajuato, San Miguel, and Querétaro, 1770–1810 300 7. The Challenge of Capitalism in Rural Communities: Production, Ethnicity, and Patriarchy from La Griega to Puerto de Nieto, 1780–1810 352 8. Enlightened Reformers and Popular Religion: Polarizations and Mediations, 1770–1810 403 Conclusion: The Bajío and North America in the Atlantic Crucible 451 Epilogue: Toward Unimagined Revolutions 487 Acknowledgments 493 Appendix A: Employers and Workers at Querétaro, 1588–1699 499 Appendix B: Production, Patriarchy, and Ethnicity in the Bajío Bottomlands, 1670–1685 509 Appendix C: Bajío Population, 1600–1800 529 Appendix D: Eighteenth-Century Economic Indicators: Mining and Taxed Commerce 549 Appendix E: The Sierra Gorda and New Santander, 1740–1760 559 Appendix F: Population, Ethnicity, Family, and Work in Rural Communities, 1791–1792 573 Appendix G: Tribute and Tributaries in the Querétaro District, 1807 609 Notes 617 Bibliography 665 Index 685

“Making a New World creates a compelling new history of world capitalism in the early modern era, with Mexico at its center. It also provides a comprehensive history of the Bajío, the dynamic mining and agricultural region crucial to understanding the sociocultural, economic, and political history of Mexico. This exciting, well-researched book makes us reconsider what we thought we knew about the Atlantic world.”—Steve J. Stern, Alberto Flores Galindo Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison