This PhD thesis states its aim very straightforwardly: to explore the relationship between the conquest of New Spain and the booty that the Spanish adventurers hoped to take. Although it is common knowledge that the spoils of war provided one of the central motivations for Spaniards to take the risk of entering a dangerous and unknown foreign country, how exactly the “political economy of conquest”—the interaction of political and economic interests in the conquest—worked is still largely unknown. Huber states correctly that even the abundant literature of the last decades has not added much to our knowledge in this regard.

His questions for this study are who was to gain what, how much, and why. He is also interested in the norms and practices of booty and in its impact on the emerging colonial institutions. Thus, he is offering a fresh approach to an often-told story. Huber convincingly situates his work in the research on conceptual and economic history as well as on the history of booty and of violence. It contributes to the studies on distributive justice and the economy of grace and favors that have informed recent scholarship of the early modern period.

The book is structured thematically. The first part deals with prior agreements and foundations. Huber discusses the genealogy of Iberian legitimations of the norms and practices of booty since the Reconquista and the character of the Spanish expansion in the New World as joint ventures between the crown and private entrepreneurs. Based on a very broad set of sources from France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, and Spain, the study also provides a vivid picture of Cortés's practices to mobilize his men by announcement and promise, and by registration and control, including the arrangement of alliances with the various indigenous peoples because their “logic of reward” was compatible to that of the Spaniards. At a later point, Cortés based his assertions of royal favors due on the claim that he had been the principal investor in the expedition. Huber demonstrates very well how this claim too was part of the intricate system of booty and favor.

In his second part, Huber focuses on the distribution of the booty. The study meticulously analyzes the acquisition and distribution of the spoils of war, comparing the New Spanish case to better documented later instances. As Pierre Chaunu concluded 50 years ago, the Conquista dynamically expanded to become self-sustaining, with repetitive cycles of looting. The last part of this work is dedicated to the transformation from conducting raids to safeguarding the loot. According to Huber, the process of state-building was closely connected to the economy of grace and favors. Following the logic of distributive justice, in order to gain the royal favors that they were entitled to, the conquistadors were not only willing to pay taxes, but they also wrote lengthy reports presenting their merits and the services rendered to the crown. The aim was to perpetuate their claims and become hereditary lords of the land.

The book would have benefited from a stylistic revision reducing the political economy vocabulary to the necessary minimum. In focusing on the booty, Huber marginalizes other aspects of the conquest, such as its mission. However, the book rewards the reader with a variety of insights and new interpretations, and Huber makes an important addition to the existing literature on the Conquista. It is probably the most profound study to date of the economy of booty, not only in the Spanish empire but also beyond, in the Western and even the Muslim world. A Spanish translation would be desirable.