Introduction: Corruption, Abuse, and Justice in the Iberian Empires / Christoph Rosenmuller -- Forgery and Tambos : False Documents, Imagined Incas, and the Making of Andean Space / Jeremy Ravi Mumford -- From Corrupt to Criminal : Reflections on the Great Potosi Mint Fraud of 1649 / Kris Lane -- Clients, Patrons, and Tribute : The Aguilar Family in Mexico, Tenochtitlan, 1644-1689 / William F. Connell -- Portraits of Bad Officials : Malfeasance in Visita Sentences from Seventeenth-Century Santo Domingo / Marc Eagle -- "The Execrable Offense of Fraud or Bribery" : Corrupt Judges and Common People in the Visita of Imperial Mexico (1715-1727) / Christoph Rosenmuller -- "Our Delivery Consists in Appointing Good Ministers" : Corruption and the Dilemmas of Appointing Officials in Early Eighteenth-Century Spain / Francisco A. Eissa-Barroso -- Custom, Corruption, and Reform in Early Eighteenth-Century Mexico : Puebla's Merchant Priests versus the Reformist Bureaucrat / Frances Ramos -- Merchant-Bureaucrats, Unwritten Contracts, and Fraud in the Manila Galleon Trade / Catherine Tracy Goode -- Addicted to Smuggling : Contraband Trade in Eighteenth-Century Brazil and Rio de la Plata / Fabricio Prado.
Summary:
"This book provides new perspectives into a subject that historians have largely overlooked. The contributors use fresh archival research from Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, and the Philippines to examine the lives of slaves and farmworkers as well as self-serving magistrates, bishops, and traders in contraband. The authors show that corruption was a powerful discourse in the Atlantic world. Investigative judges could dismiss culprits, jail them, or, sometimes, have them 'garroted and their corpses publicly displayed'"--Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.