Politics and Reform in Spain and Viceregal Mexico

This work examines the relationship between Spain and America in the seventeenth century through the life and thought of Juan de Palafox, a protege of the count-duke of Olivares who became Visitor General of New Spain. Alvarez de Toledo explores the failed attempt made by Palafox to reform overseas government on constitutional lines, and thus throws light upon the Spanish practice of empire and on how the transatlantic relationship worked and developed.