Friends, followers, country men: viceregal patronage in mid-eighteenth century New Spain

Even when viceroy Juan Francisco Güemes y Horcasitas, first count of Revillagigedo, was one of the high functionaries selected by the new Bourbon regime amongst the low nobility (hidalguía) to carry out reforms that seeked to reordain and moralize colonial administration, many of which he complied, also kept the ancient practice to support or settle many of his relatives, friends, countrymen or members of his entourage in positions of government, audiencias, cathedral chapters, corregimientos, etcetera. The author analyzes also the political leverage of Güemes in the metropolis, such as the marquis of Ensenada, minister of the Royal Treasury, and his contacts of business and familiar type with rich criollos of New Spain like the count of San Bartolomé de Jala and captain Jacinto Martínez Aguirre