All serious students of Spain's national tragedies should find room for the book on their shelves.
Eric Rust History: Reviews of New Books Sets a new standard for the writing of Spanish imperial history.
Michael J. Schreffler Sixteenth Century Journal [The authors'] ability to synthesize a broad and disparate historiography on economic, political, and diplomatic developments in early modern Europe as they related to the new opportunities created by the opening of American territories represents a significant achievement and contributes to our understanding of the relationship between economic trends and political formation.
Ida Altman American Historical Review This book is highly recommended to a broad array of scholars... The authors make a compelling case for the centrality of the Spanish Empire in the emergence of Europe's economic and political hegemony.
Jeremy Baskes Historian This is a brilliant and pioneering study packed with research and is original in both its presentation and its conclusions... While communicating concrete historical information, the study stimulates the reader to speculate more widely on the fundamental problem of economic growth and the specific case of Spain. The authors inevitably take account of the evolution of the whole Atlantic world; in choosing so vast a canvas on which to execute their magisterial composition, they encourage scholars to take a more global vision of the problems of empire.
Henry Kamen Economic Society This is a magisterial work from two scholars who have spent a lifetime investigating the economic history of Spain's overseas empire. It will be impossible for the next generation of scholars not to cite the Steins' latest book when writing about the early imperial economies of Europe. Choice What could one say of the beginnings of a Chaunu-like magnum opus other than to highlight its demonstration of a great depth of reading and research and the profound learning behind it? This is perhaps the most comprehensive, detailed examination in English of Spain and empire since Haring took up the subject during World War I.
David Weiland Hispanic American Historical Review This book presents a compelling vision of the role of American silver in the making of Spain, the Americas, and Europe, and it merits a wide readership.
Kenneth J. Andrien The Americas The authors survey and comment on the complex historiography of Spain's rise and fall in the Atlantic world and Western Europe. This work is also deeply grounded in archival research... that allows ample insight into the functioning of the Spanish court and colonial bureaucracy.
Christopher Schmidt-Nowara Latin American Research Review 2004