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The office of the viceroy of New Spain generated and archived this fond from the 17th century on-wards. The viceroy was the maximum authority representing the Spanish Crown. As Captain General, the viceroy oversaw the military; as kingdom governor, the politics and administration; as judicial branch authority and as president of the Audiencia; as Church vice-patron, the religious order; and as Royal Treasury superintendent, the fiscal sector. The viceroy was responsible for issuing official communications within New Spain, with the Spanish Crown and with the authorities of other viceroyalties, governments, captaincies or regional authorities in America and Asia (The Philippines).

The fond contains minute books with copies of the viceroy's letters sent to the Spanish Crown, on one hand, and to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of New Spain on the other, as well as those sent to the viceroys of Peru and New Granada and to the captains general or governors of Quito, Guayaquil, Havana, Puerto Rico, Cartagena and Caracas, to name but a few. The oldest letters signed by the viceroy date from 1664.

The documentation includes the execution of royal orders; commercial transactions and exchange of goods; mobility of officials; fiscal, commercial and administrative payments. There is relevant official correspondence of the viceroy with various authorities of the Spanish colonies in America and the Caribbean, as well as the letters that these governments exchanged related to their commercial dealings, the payment of taxes, maritime transit, territorial conflicts between Spain and other European countries, mobility of public officials or appointment of authorities.

The Viceroyalty of New Spain was founded on the 17th of April 1535. From the outset, the Viceroy's private office, the "Secretaría de Cámara", was created for handling affairs. In 1790, the "Archivo de la Secretaría de Cámara del Virreinato" was officially founded, and in 1823 the name was changed to "Archivo General y Público de la Nación".