A Perfect Red: A Balanced Account

A Perfect Red is a highly readable, fast-paced, and even account of the rise and eventual fall of Latin American cochineal.  Amy Greenfield facilely demonstrates that popular history can be quite informative. 

One of the strongest aspects of the book is her balanced portrayal (unlike Mintz and the Coes) of Spanish colonial power and some of its leading figures most notably Charles V and Phillip II.  She writes, "The administration of empire is no easy task" and

certainly not the Spanish Empire, estimated, at its peak, to have been the 6th largest in world history. 

She rightly acknowledges Charles V's impossible political situation as emperor with the dissolution of Christendom (which he vowed to save) and the augmentation of Spain's global empire.  Despite his predicament, Charles V tried to correct some of the injustices (encomiendas) of Spanish colonial policy.  She credits his efforts although they eventually failed.  And, surprisingly enough, she  gives due recognition of the conquistadors' plight linking the actions they took in Latin America with what their forefathers did in Spain during the Reconquista.    

Greenfield sees the important and often dicey role that the Spanish merchants played in the transatlantic cochineal trade, a point that Mintz and the Coes largely ignored.  Not only did merchants face risks from uncertain European cochineal demand, but they faced financial loss, and, in some cases, death from state-sanctioned pirating from Britain and the Dutch.    

 
Spanish merchants are also described in a favorable light in the development of the "cochineal credit system."  While the Indians benefitted financially from the system, there were also non-economic incentives as it "allowed them to work at home, in the company of their children and extended family."