BUILDING A COLONIAL RESOURCE MONOPOLY: THE EXPANSION OF SULPHUR MINING IN NEW SPAIN, 1600–1820*

The discovery, extraction, and monopolistic control of key natural resources was a priority of New Spain's colonial administration. Managing the region's abundant resources, however, often proved difficult for the Spanish Crown. Human and environmental challenges impeded protoindustrial growth and development, and monopolistic control of resources often met resistance. In this article I examine these processes in the context of New Spain's little‐known monopoly on sulphur—a yellow, powdery mineral the Crown jealously guarded as its own. Sulphur was critical for gunpowder and explosives production, yet the Crown often failed to produce enough of it to meet the growing demand by its military and the silver blast‐mining industry. Colonial documents reveal administrators’ attempts to improve sulphur production through reform measures, which included advising sulphur miners on how to discover sulphur deposits and, eventually, how to develop their mines. Efforts to improve sulphur production were moderately successful, although the process was messy and inefficient.     

Neoliberalism and water reforms in western India: Commercialization, self-sufficiency, and regulatory bodies

This paper deals with the changes brought about by the ‘reforms’ in water currently under way in many parts of the world. Three particular reforms in the state of Maharashtra in western India are discussed - the commercialization of a parastatal body, the concept of self-sufficiency as it plays out in the context of urban local bodies, and the working of the regulatory body in water. The analysis of these reforms shows how, in common with neoliberal projects elsewhere, changes in institutional practices are resulting in changes in subjectivities, foreclosing alternatives, and leading to attempts to ‘depoliticize’ the water arena. At the same time, there are differences between the regulatory experience of Maharashtra and regulation in other locales, which offers insights into how neoliberalism works in a context where water reforms have emerged relatively late.