All five of his appointed viceroys and five of the governors who served Nueva México between 1733 and 1760 had military backgrounds. One man who served as an interim head of Nueva España was the archbishop; the other two came from the audiencia. The one civilian governor, Francisco Marín, had been involved with mining in Potosí and was a merchant in México.
The promotion of military officers not only provided an avenue for upward mobility for men from the minor nobility, but it also removed the ambitious from the neighborhood of the court. Francisco Eissa-Barroso found Philip only reverted to auctioning governorships a few times to finance his Italian campaigns: twice in 1728, once in 1731, three times in 1733-3. With the War of Austrian Succession, he sold one incumbency in 1739 and four in 1741. None were in Nuevo México.
Unfortunately, Philip’s deployment of talented soldiers meant lost revenues. Men serving defense functions were exempt from many taxes and fees. Before his death in July of 1746, he issued three decrees regarding the collection of media anata. This fee dated back to Philip II. When facing bankruptcy, the Hapsburg ruler had demanded each person appointed to office remit half his first year’s salary. Military men later were exempted.
The then governor, Joaquín Codallos, responded he hadn’t paid because he had a military appointment. Authorities in Mexico City agreed, but asked for more detail on the functions his predecessors had performed. His witnesses all testified no governor ever paid the media anata and "the poverty of the province was such that none of the inhabitants paid any fees or tribute." Lest any one of them be found liable, they added "the seven alcaldes mayores received no pay and very little fees."
Philip turned his economic problems over to Zenón de Somodevilla y Bengoechea in 1743. His minister for the treasury, defense and the Indies had begun as a navy clerk in 1720, then been promoted on merit to supervise a naval arsenal in 1731. For services rendered, Philip’s son Charles made him Marqués de la Ensenada in Naples in 1736.
Many of his suggestions for reform were opposed by the Spanish nobility. He found more cooperation from the viceroy in Nueva España. Pedro Cebrián tried to improve the collection of existing taxes, tithes, and fees. He established government monopolies, including one on salt, and banned cards and dice.
The local governor, Enrique de Olavide, dutifully issued a bando "ordering the imprisonment of citizens and soldiers found gambling with dice" in 1737, and repeated it the following year. However, salt remained an expense, not a monopoly. He provided military escorts for the trips to the salt lakes in 1738. His successor, Gaspar de Mendoza, did the same in 1739, 1740, and 1742.
In 1744, Somodevilla asked Cebrián for statistics on the viceroyalty. He, in turn, commissioned José Antonio Villaseñor to conduct the first formal census. The counts were made with taxation in mind. He listed numbers of families, not individuals. It’s not clear if he included the 80 families associated with the presidio, since they may have been exempt from taxes.
Households would be a better term, since it did not, according to Frederic Athearn, include servants or Indians living outside the pueblos. If one assumed families averaged two children and two servants, then the total population would have been about 5,500. If one assumed pueblo families also averaged two children, then their population would have been 3,680. If one assumed families were larger, then the total population number would be increased, but not the number of the enumerated.
The distribution of Spanish families was uneven. The presence of ranchos in the counts for some pueblos indicated settlers had claimed land. They may have inflated some pueblo populations, and more important, understated the tax base. Cebrián’s successor tried to rectify this in 1748. Francisco de Güemes ordered governors to count the Spaniards when they visited the pueblos.
If one adjusts for the ranchos, there may have been a thousand taxable men in the kingdom, with most in Santa Cruz, followed closely by Santa Fé. Albuquerque probably had half their numbers.
| Count | Spaniard | Pueblo | Total | % Spaniard | Notes | |
| Central | ||||||
| Cochití | 85 | Includes ranchos | ||||
| Galisteo | 50 | Includes ranchos | ||||
| Nambé | 50 | |||||
| Pecos | 125 | |||||
| Pojoaque | 18 | |||||
| Santa Fé | 300 | |||||
| Santo Dominngo | 50 | |||||
| Tesuque | 50 | |||||
| 350 | 378 | 728 | 0.48 | |||
| South | ||||||
| Alameda | 8 | |||||
| Albuquerque | 100 | Includes Atrisco | ||||
| Bocas | 10 | |||||
| Cia | 50 | Includes 2 ranchos | ||||
| Fuenclara | 50 | |||||
| Isleta | 80 | |||||
| Jémez | 100 | |||||
| San Felipe | 60 | Includes ranchos | ||||
| Santa Ana | 50 | |||||
| 168 | 340 | 508 | 0.33 | |||
| North | ||||||
| Chama | 17 | |||||
| La Soledad | 40 | |||||
| Ojo Caliente | 56 | Includes 4 ranchos | ||||
| San Ildefonso | 100 | Includes Santa Clara | ||||
| San Juan | 60 | |||||
| Santa Cruz de la Cañada | 260 | Includes ranchos | ||||
| Santa Rosa de Abiquiú | 20 | |||||
| 393 | 160 | 553 | 0.71 | |||
| Far West | ||||||
| Ácoma | 110 | |||||
| Laguna | 60 | Includes 3 ranchos | ||||
| Zuñi | 150 | |||||
| Far North | ||||||
| Embudo | 8 | |||||
| Picurís | 80 | |||||
| Taos | 80 | Includes some ranchos | ||||
| 8 | 160 | 168 | 0.05 | |||
| Total | 2,277 | 919 | 1,038 | 1,957 | 0.47 |
Notes: Little is known about Marín, so everyone repeats the phrase "worked in the mines." That didn’t mean he did the physical extraction; that was skilled labor done by natives. In Nueva España at the time, the term miner usually referred to prospectors or to men who financed the development and operation of mines.
Athearn, Frederic J. A Forgotten Kingdom, 1978.
Eissa-Barroso, Francisco A. "‘Having Served in the Troops’: The Appointment of Military Officers as Provincial Governors in Early Eighteenth-Century Spanish America, 1700-1746," Colonial Latin American Historical Review 1:329-359:2013.
Codallos y Rabal, Joaquín. Letter to Juez del Real Derecho regarding media anata, 2 August 1747; summarized by Twitchell.
Felipe V. Royal decree regarding media anata, 31 July 1746; summarized by Twitchell.
Güemes y Horcasitas, Francisco de. Dispatch from the supreme government regarding Spaniards in pueblos, 31 July 1748; summarized by Twitchell.
Mendoza, Gaspar Domingo de. Bandos regarding departure date for escorts to salt lakes, June 1739, July 1740, 25 May 1742; summarized by Twitchell.
Olavide y Micheleña, Enrique de. Bandos regarding gambling with dice, 21 January 1737; gambling, 24 March 1738; departure date for escort to salt lakes, 12 July 1738; by Twitchell.
Ortuño, Manuel. "Cebrián and Agustín Pedro (1687-1752)," Enciclopedia Universal Micronet website.
Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, volume 2, 1914.
Villaseñor, José Antonio. Census; summarized by Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.
Nueva España Viceroys with Military Backgrounds
Juan de Acuña - captain - infantry, Perú
Pedro de Castro y Figueroa - captain general - armies
Pedro Cebrián y Agustín - army
Francisco de Guemes y Horcasitas - captain general - Cuba
Agustin Ahumada y Villalon - lieutenant colonel - royal guards, Italy
Interim Viceroys
Juan Antonio Vizarrón y Eguiarreta - archbishop
Pedro Malo de Villavicencio - audiencia, lawyer
Francisco Antonio de Echávarri - audiencia, inspector of mines
Nuevo México Governors with Military Backgrounds
Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora - colonel - army
Enrique de Olivade y Micheleña - lieutenant - navy
Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza - lieutenant colonel - infantry
Joaquín Codallos y Rabal - major - army
Tomás Vélez Cachupín - cadet - Havana
Governors with Civilian Backgrounds
Francisco Antonio Marín del Valle - mines, merchant
Note: sources often convert Spanish terms into American, so titles and branches only suggest experiences.
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