ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses anti-vagrancy campaigns in late colonial New Spain in the context of enlightened attitudes towards poverty and economic rationality, with an emphasis on the deportation of 4,000 Mexican individuals to the Philippines between 1765 and 1811 accused of vagrancy. This chapter discusses the Hispanic Enlightenment by considering Spain, the Spanish American colonies, and the Philippines as interconnected realms. The chapter also discusses the significance of transoceanic connections in the development of eighteenth-century Spanish American thought on vagrancy, poverty and education and the active role of colonies and popular classes in the implementation of initiatives designed by the metropole and elite sectors.
