The first third of this deeply researched descriptive study of Northern European (essentially German, Flemish, and Dutch) emigrants to New Spain addresses categorization, both in the sense of belonging (principally being vecinos) and not belonging, the latter involving various means (not always successful) by Spanish authorities of exclusion or punishment. Next, the author turns to labor and economic issues, and what emigrants did once they got to America. She ends by looking at the inevitable integration of Northern communities among the Spanish-origin community.
One virtue of this study is the ever-present connection between Spain (principally Seville) and New Spain and the importance of migration and settlement within the dynamics of royal colonial policy. Part 1, the strongest section of the book, discusses the very definition of foreign and foreigner, always hazy concepts, and it documents the many cases in which expulsion of a supposed foreigner was decreed and then ignored. Jurisdiction was confused, which was characteristic of the Spanish monarchy, and the gap between Peninsular jurisdiction and the New World was also huge; viceroys and judges in America frequently ignored orders to punish putative foreigners who were, in fact, key members of mercantile communities.
As financial pressures on the monarchy increased during wartime in the late sixteenth century and later into the reign of Philip IV, governments tried to extract as much wealth as they could from foreigners, who were routinely accused of having committed fraud. Defendants in these cases often argued that they were not, in fact, foreign, and that Spaniards themselves committed fraud. Taxes on foreigners, involving payment of the composición (to compensate for supposed damages as a result of their being foreign) and establishment of a new judicial jurisdiction for that purpose predictably led nowhere. And, finally, Poggio provides a detailed narrative of the religious aspects of alleged foreignness through Inquisitorial prosecution of Protestants.
From categorization, the author moves on to the actual migration and what Northern Europeans did in Spain and/or America. Among the Northerners there were merchants, artisans, artillerymen, servants, sailors, and captives, but the group Poggio most focuses on were those involved in mining and metallurgy. Rather than import gunpowder to America, Spanish officials sought to produce it in New Spain, and Dutch emigrants in particular were crucial in processing local nitrates to that end. Northerners also were prominent in the shipping sector and gradually were able to establish their own consulados, or commercial associations.
Part 3 and the conclusion return to the criteria of belonging. Northerners spoke different languages, they included Protestants and Catholics, and they worked in many different sectors. But at the same time, they shared certain features, including having been (at least initially) categorized as foreigners and harboring deep antipathy toward Philip II. Not surprisingly (there is nothing surprising in this book), they gradually assimilated, adopting Spanish surnames, speaking Spanish, attending Catholic churches, and intermarrying. German, Dutch, and Flemish migrants became essential members of New World communities, to some degree facilitated by their commercial connections in Seville.
Despite the copious and interesting material, this book suffers from a lack of argument, indicated by the title itself: the impact on what? Poggio's research is careful and impressive. However, though she says at the start that her approach is different than previous studies in that she proposes to redimensionar the matter, it is not clear to this reader what that means or how it plays out. The discussion of belonging and place attachment draws largely on other historians’ work, which is fine, but one would like some new direction. (In her many footnotes, the huge page spreads of works with no indication of what they are about are not helpful.) Additionally, given the length and density of the book, readers (at least this one) would benefit from chapter summaries and topic sentences to guide them through the dense and detailed material and structure the book's direction. Their absence also speaks to the missing argument.
