The Economy of Favor

When in 1680 the count of Paredes arrived in Mexico City to become the new viceroy of New Spain he was welcomed by two triumphal arches erected by the municipal council and the cathedral chapter in which both of their creators, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, respectively, had included paintings that allegorized the virtue of liberality as being peculiar to rulers. As Sigüenza put it, "princes have nothing better to immortalize themselves than liberality and magnificence. ...With nothing better than the bestowing of rewards do the hands of princes shine." To illustrate these ideas, he used an image of the Aztec ruler Motecohçuma Xocoyotzin, who, according to him, had been characterized by his generosity. Quoting Seneca, Sor Juana, for her part, contended that "he who honors the worthy man gains a reputation for himself." She designed a painting in which Neptune, as the image of the good ruler, was shown rewarding a dolphin for the services he had rendered to the monarch of the seas. ¹ With these words and images both Sigüenza and Sor Juana were expressing one of the basic political principles of the time: The union between a ruler and his subjects required the ruler's bounty. This was something that all political writers of the period agreed upon: The ruler, whether the king or the viceroy, had to be liberal. ² As the ruler of the New Spanish polity, the viceroy was expected to show his generosity with the inhabitants of the kingdom, although, as a matter of fact, viceregal munificence was only an extension of royal liberality, the king being the ultimate source of the favors and rewards bestowed upon the inhabitants of New Spain by the viceroys. Liberality, or the need for the monarch to be generous with his vassals, rewarding all those who had rendered him any services, becomes, therefore, a key term to understanding the transatlantic political practices of the Spanish monarchy.