In this erudite and comprehensive study Adrian Pearce offers a detailed survey of British trade with Spanish America in the latter half of the eighteenth century drawing together a variety of sources and looking at all aspects of commercial activity. The history and vicissitudes of the free port system are documented in a much fuller way than heretofore and the interests of competing interest groups are mapped out. Pearce re-examines the share of British export trade provided through Spanish America in one of the most important interventions in the field in recent years.

This book presents one of the first detailed analyses of the first six decades of Bourbon rule in Spanish America (1700-1763). Based on a wealth of archival sources in Spain and Peru and on a body of historical research that has transformed our understandi

Integrating the political and governmental histories of Spain and the American colonies, this book focuses on the political and governmental history of the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 'early Bourbon' period and provides a new interpretation of the period's broader significance within Spanish American history.