DELLPLAIN LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES, 1

Editor

David J. Robinson

Syracuse University

Advisory Editorial Committee

David A. Brading University of Cambridge

Daniel Raposo Cordeiro Syracuse University

William M. Denevan University of Wisconsin

John H. Galloway University of Toronto

John Lynch University of London

William Mangin Syracuse University

Social Fabric and Spatial Structure in

Colonial Latin America

~

..., "

~~ --·· ...

Edited by David J. Robinson ·

Published for Department of Geography

Syracuse University by

University Microfilms International . 1979

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Introduction to Themes and Scales

DAVID J. ROBINSON

ix

xiii

xvii

1

1 Chibcha Settlement under Spanish Rule: 1537-1810 25

JUAN A. VILLAMARIN AND JUDITH E. VILLAMARIN

2 Disasters and Population Change in Central 85 Highland Ecuador, 1778-1825

ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY

3 The Spatial Dimensions of a Social Process: Marriage 117 and Mobility in Late Colonial Northern Mexico

MICHAEL M. SWANN '"' "'-

~

4 Clans, the Militi~and Territorial Government: The 181 Articulation of Kinship with Polity in Eighteenth-Century Sao Paulo

ELIZABETH ANNE KUZNESOF

5 Spatial Dimensions of the Credit Market in 227 Eighteenth-Century Nueva Galicia

LINDA L. GREENOW

6 Colonization and Modernization in Eighteenth- 281 Century Brazi~

ROBERTA MARX DELSON

(vii)

7

8

9

10

11

The Impact of the Crisis in Nineteenth-Century Mining on Regional Economies: The Example of the Bolivian Yungas, 1786-1838

HERBERT S. KLEIN

Population and Space in Eighteenth-Century Buenos Aires · LYMAN L. JOHNSON AND SUSAN MIGDEN SOCOLOW

Provincial Urban Problems: Trujillo, Peru, 1600-1784

KATHARINE COLEMAN

A Case History of the Transition from Precolonial to the Colonial Period in Mexico: Santiago Tejupan

WOODROW BORAH AND SHERBURNE F. COOK

The Rise of Caracas as a Primate City

JOHN V. LOMBARDI

Index

(viii)

315

339

369

409

433

473

1-1

1-2

1-3

2-1

2-2

2-3

2-4

3-1

3-2

3-3

3-4

3-5

3-6

3-7

List of Figures

The Sabana de Bogota and Valley of Ubate

Indian Pueblos of the Sabana de Bogota and Valley of Ubate at the End of the · Sixteenth Century

The Sabana de Bogota and Valley of Ubate in the ~arly Nineteenth Century

The Central Highland of Ecuador: Towns and Parish Centers in the Eighteenth Century

The Distribution and Ethnic Composition of the Population in the Central Highlands of Ecuador, 1778-81 to 1814

Population Change in the Central Highlands of Ecuador, 1778-81 to 1814

Schematic Representation of the Causes of Population De~line ~n the Central Highlands bf Ecuador, 1778-1825

Location of the Study Area, Northern Central Mexico:~ ~

Detail of t~e Study Area, Northern Central Mexico

~~ Origins of Migrants to San Miguel de Mezquital (A), and San Jose del Parral (B), 1777

Origins of Marriage Partners Migrating to San Juan del Rio, 1769-1779

Origins of Marriage Partners M1grating to Santiago Papasquiaro, 1769-1779

Sea.sonal Distribution of Marriages, 1769-1779

Seasonal Distribu~ion of Mean Marriage Migration Distances, 1769-1779

(ix)

2

3

7

8

9

9

11

12

l~

1~

14

IL

IL

IL

}

7 The Impact of the Crisis in Nineteenth Century Mining on Regional Economies:. The Example of the Bolivian Yungas, 1786-1838

Herbert S. Klein*

The relative decline of an .export sector in an underde­veloped economy is usually thought to have ·an adverse effect

on the local and regional economies which are linked to this export industry. As the ¢1.ynamic sector declines, its back-

ward ties loosen and without an alternative market there is

usually stagnation and possibly even a return to subsistence

economies at the local level. To properly measure this changing relationship, indices

of production, consumptio.,n, markets and employment are re­quired. Yet in most undeveloped societies such indices are

totally lacking and it·i~ ext:remely d:lfficult to analyze the

performance of natio.,~al markets not directly engaged in the export of goods to i:al,ternational markets. Thus the existence of material on any on: of these factors for an underdeveloped

economy, however partial, provides important insights into national and regional developments otherwise inaccessible to

previous scholarship. For this reason, the Indian tax censuses of colonial and

early republican Bolivia provide a unique opportunity to mea­sure the impact of th.e economic crisis in the well documented

silver mining export sector .on the little known regional ag­ricultural economies of the heavily Indian areas which were

dependent on trade_ with the mining enclave. Whereas few use­

ful national trade statistics exist for Bolivia in this

*The author is Professor of History, Columbia University.

316

period of its early civil wars and weakened central govern­

ment, there does exist a surprisingly complete body of census

information on the rural Indian population and its land ten­

ure arrangements, which allow us to measure to some extent

the changing fortunes of the local economies, as seen in some

demographic and land tenure indices. I have chosen to study this regional-export sector rela­

tionship through an analysis of the changes in the Indian

populations of the coca-growing pueblos of the district of

Chulumani, also known as the Yungas, in the province of La

Paz. Coca was the primary crop of the Yungas from the eigh­

teenth century to the present and the region has always been

considered the premiere coca-growing zone in all of Bolivia.

Coca exports from the valleys went predominantly to the alti­

plano (high plateau) silver mines of Oruro and Potosi in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there to be consumed as

a basic necessity by the Indian miners. Thus, for example,

in the total taxable imports into Potosi in the period 1777-1778, some 17 percent was made up of coca imports alone, with

all of this coming from within the confines of Alto-Peru (Bo­

livia) and most of it coming from the Yungas. 1 Equally, in

an analysis of the coca exports from the pueblo of Chulumani

and a few surrounding pueblos of the Yungas district in the

year 1790, it was equally evident that almost half (or 49 percent) of this areq's export was destined to the altiplano

mine centers. 2

1of the almost two million pesos worth of goods imported into the city of Potosf in these two years, coca (the second most valuable commodity after aguardiente) accounted for some 332,000 pesos, which amounted to approxi­mately 39,000 cestos of coca leaf. Calculated from the Manuales de Alca­bala (caminos de arriba y de abajo) of Potosi for 1777-1778, to be found in the Archivo General de la Naci6n, Buenos Aires (hereafter cited as AGN): Sala XIII, 6-4-5, leg. 23, libros 4 and 5; and 13-6-5-1, leg. 24, libro 3. '

2In 1790 the Chulumani Manuales de A!cabala listed some 65,000 cestos of coca for the year--which probably represented a third of total Yungas

317

Given this intimate relationship between the two econom­

ies, what impact would the decline of the mining industry,

beginning in the first years of the nineteenth century, have

on this seemingly dependent economy? What was to happen to

the organization of work in the vall~ys, to the patterns of migration, to the number of economically viable units and to

the total population as a whole? This is the basic problem,

and some of the key areas of concern that I will attempt to

analyze through th·e use of a series of demographic and land

tenure indices derived primarily from the padrones de indios

(or revisitas), which were the Indian head tax censuses.

I have selected the four most complete censuses which

encompass the period 1786 to 1838 (these are the padrones of

1786, 1803, 1829 and 1838), which coincide with a key period

of crisis in the history of Bolivian silver exports and pr9-

duction. 3 Following the end of the.first spectacular boom of

output--of which 28, 1577 cestos (or 44 percent) were shipped to Potosf alone. Adding the shipments to other altiplano mines brings the total ex­ports to the silver industry t(t·51,4Q4. cestos (or 48 percent). Calculated from the Manuales, to be found in AGN, ~-6, leg. 66, libros llfand 2. The 200,000 cestos production estimate comes from a royal survey carried out in 1796 and found in Ar~hivo General de Indias (Sevilla): Audiencia de Buenos Aires, leg. 513, cfi:tted La Paz, 17 May 1796. If these various estimates are correct, then it can be assumed that Potosf alone absorbed between 20~40,000 cestos of coca per annum from the Yungas, or between 10 and 20 percent of total output. With the addition of the other mining districts of Alto Peru, this figure may have gone as high as one-third of total output. All of these figures mean that the estimations _provided by one royal official in 1793 of annual Potosf imports of Yungas coca at on­ly 96,000 pesos are too modest. See the report in Real Academia de His­toria (Madrid), Colecci6n Mata Linhares, Torno XXVII, fol. 368 (9-9-3 1692). 1692).

3The four unpublished censuses are found in the following archives: 1786 in AGN, 13-17-6-5, leg. 24, libro 2 ("Secci6n Contadurfa, Padrones - La Paz•i); 1803 iii AGN, 13-17-9-4, leg. 36, libro 4; 1829 in Archi vo Nacional de Bolivia (Sucre), Archivos del Tribunal Nacional de Cuentas, no. 166 (hereafter cited as ANB/ATNC); and 1838 in ANB/ATNC, no. 177. These four censuses were _the earliest complete population listings available for the Yungas (known alternatively as the province of Chulumani). Though offi­cially required to be taken every five years, there was no census taken

·of the region in the 1790s, and the 1803 is the first one available after

318

the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, there had been a long period of decline in silver production. Output had

revived at Potosi by the 1750s, however, and by the 1780s it had reached a peak in this second wave of colonial prosperi­

ty. It was in fact in association with this mining revival in the mid-eighteenth century, that the previously minor Yun­gas coca zones had come into full development and achieved their predominant position for the first time. Thus in re­cognition of their new importance, the towns of the Chulumani district were separated from the province of Sicasica and were organized into a separate proyince by the Crown in 1786. Their first independent Indian census was taken in that same

year. But having reached peak levels of production by the

1780s, the mining economy of the altiplano began to decline in the following decades, a decline that turned into a long term secular trend of decadence by the first decade of the nineteenth century (Figure 7-1). 4 This secular downward

1786. There were censuses taken in 1817 and 1828, but these listed only the male tributarios, and no other groups. Thus 1829 is the first com­plete padr6n after 1803. There again appears to have been no census tak­en in the decade of the 1840s, which makes the 1838 census the next avail­able one after 1829, and the last one before the 1852 and 1857 censuses. By this decade Suri was eliminated from the district, as well as several of the other marginal towns, which makes comparison difficult. Also the available figures on mine production are considered of less value fol­lowing 1850. Finally the major epidemic of 1855/56 seriously influences demographic patterns. in the region, making it difficult to isolate the economic from the disease factors influencing population change. On this impact, see Nicolas Sanchez-Albornoz, Indios y tributarios en el Alto Peru (Lima, 1978), pp. 35-36; and Erwin P. Greishaber, "Survival of Indi­an Communities in Nineteenth-Century Bolivia," (Ph.D. dissertation, De­partment of History, University of North Carolina, 1977), p. 178.

4The data for Figure 7-1 are found in Ernesto Ruck, Gu1'.a general de Bo­livia, Primer ano (Sucre, 1865), pp. 170~171. I have double checked Ruck's numbers against the original Banco de Rescate manuscripts for the period 1810-1820, and they vindicate the accuracy of the printed fig­ures. See Archivo de la Casa Nacional de la Moneda (Potosf), Banco de San Carlos, nos. 19, 113·.

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319

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320

trend reached its lowest point in the 1830s when production,

as measured by government minerals purchases (an exclusive

monopoly), were just half of what they had been in the peak

1780s decade. The four censuses which I have chosen to analyze were

all based on the late eighteenth-century standard model of a padron de indios, and are all identical in the types of in­

formation generated. They prov1de a detailed listing of all

taxable male Indians and their families by type of landhold­ing upon which they resided. Both in the colonial period and

in the republican era to the 1880s (when this taxation system

came to an end), all Indians aged 18 to SO years were re-

quired to pay a tax in specie to the central government

(called a tributo in the colonial period and a contribucion indigena after 182S). The rate of the tax differed among In­dians and was based on the economic and legal conditions of

the particular Indian community to which the Indian male be­longed, and on his status in the community. If the land was

rich and the taxpayer had direct access to it, he paid one

rate. If he was a member of a free community but had less

direct access to land ownership or use, he paid another and

lower rate. Finally, if he lived on a hacienda of a non-In­

dian as a landless laborer he paid a standard lowest rate tax. The Crown and Republican governments thus divided the Indian_s into three group,s: original members of the free In­

dian community with the most complete access to land (origi­

nario ~ tierra), later community arrivals with less land rights than the original founders (agregados or forasteros), and finally "landless" peons living on the estates of Span­

iards and mestizos or cholos (called yanaconas).s

5The only Republican .addition (which only began in 1838) to the colonial formula is the category of vagos, who were listed for both ayllus and ha haciendas. While there is no clear definition of what· distinguished a vago from an agregado on an ayllu or a yanacona on a hacienda, their

321

In using this census data, I have been governed by the

age and sex categories used by the census takers themselves.

While the government officials recorded the ages of all

males, females were listed with their ages up to 14 years on­

ly, thereafter being categorized only as to their marriage status. Nevertheless, the nine rough age and sex breakdowns do provide a sufficient degree of discrimination to be of

utility in constructing the important demographic variables l1sed in this study·. These categories included four rankings

for men: nines (to age 14), proximos (14-18), tributaries (19-SO) and reservados (over SO years); and four for women:

ninas (to 14), and for those over 14 being solteras (single),

casadas (married women) and viudas (widows). Finally, there

was the category of ausentes for any person missing from the community at the time of the census and not accounted for in the P'.irish death registers (libros de difuntos).

For consistency of analysis, I have also confined myself in this study to the eleven principal coca-producing pueblos (which include both the··-smal"l urban centers and the large ru­

ral zones which fell._,,.under their jurisdiction). While the

republican governmen~ re-drew Chulumani's boundaries, this ~

involved only the marginal towns of the region which were not

significant producers of coca nor were major centers of ei­ther ayllu (or community) or hacienda populations. While in the censuses of 1829 and 1838 the pueblo of Yanacachi was

formally divided into two sub-districts, that of Yanacachi

position must have been quite similar, since they paid the identical tribute of five pesos. I therefore assume that they were newly arrived yanaconas or agregados with no immediate and direct access to the lands of ei.ther the ayllu or the hacienda, but that this would change over time (this is somewhat borne out in the census of 187l'when many vagos are

· listed as having "passed over" into regular agregado status since the last census, ANB/ATNC, No. 181). I have therefore simply listed them as agregados or yanaconas to make the figures comparable with the three pre­vious censuses. Interestingly, this category of vagos appears to have been used by the Bolivian government only in the Yungas region (personal communication from.Prof. E. Greishaber, 15 August 1978).

322

proper and the vice-canton of Milluhuaya, I have counted it

as one undivided pueblo in all the following Tables. Also,

I have eliminated from all calculations the small number of

taxable Indians listed as resident in the urban centers of

the pueblos (abecinado en el pueblo), or the even smaller number exempted from taxation because they were working on

local parish church lands which maintained the religious in­

stitution in the local towns. In analyzing these four censuses during the dramatically

changing fortunes of silver production, it is immediately ap~ parent that there was some correlation between the cycles of

production on the altiplano mines and the peasant population

in the coca valleys. The brisk decline in silver output be­ginning in the years 1799 and 1800 was immediately reflected in the census of 1803. As can be seen in Table 7-1, both the total population and the number of haciendas declined in the

censuses of 1803 and 1829, the latter taken at the worst dec­ade of mine output since the 1770s and the worst decade of

nineteenth-century production. The revival in silver produc­tion in the 1830s would in turn be reflected by an increase in population.

This changing pattern, a high population in 1786, fol­lowed by a steady decline in the next two censuses of 1803 and 1829, and then by ~ moderate rise in 1838, was, with the single exception of the o~iginarios in 1803, reflected in all three major work-status-land categories among the peasants of

the regions. Thus not only did the total population of pea­

sants on the haciendas decline, but so did the populations-­both original members with direct land access and landless

later arrivals--on the ayllus or free landowning communities.

These three populations responded so similarly to the exter­

nal crisis, that their relative importance within the region's

total population changed little over the 52 years covered by the four censuses.

·y

,1j

Table 7-1. Population Change among the Aymara Population of the Eleven Principal Pueblos in

the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786 1803 1829

Total Population 20,732 16,792 15,505

Yanaconas (haciendas) 13,985 10,.713 10,275

Originarios (on ayllus) 2,825 2,935 2,556

Agregados (on ayllus) 3,922 3,.144 2, 795

Total Ayllus Population (6, 747) (6,079) (5,270)

323

1838

16,798

11,076

2,602

3,120

(5. 722)

Although the general trends in the three_population groups were similar, a closer examination of various indices

indicates somewhat differing responses among each of the thre

categories of Aymara peasants. Turning to the most important sector of coca product~9n, that of the haciendas and their . ~- -

yanacona populations, it is ~pparent that there was a decline in both population-~nd the number of operating haciendas as well (Table 7-2). <JbNiously, the smaller and more marginal

haciendas went out of production during the crisis and rela­tively few returned, even in the final moderat~ boom of 1838. But curiously, all haciendas systematically lost population, and thus average size of estates went down as well as total

population. If ~ust the more economically viable producers had re­

mained and only the marginals had been eliminated, then in fact average size of populations should have risen on the re­

maining estates. But just the opposite occuri~d, which ~ug­

gests that all estates, not just the marginal ones, were los­ing workers during this period of crisis (Table 7-3). Aside

from .the overall decline of the average workers per estate

324

Table 7-2. PoEulation Change on the Haciendas of the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786 1803 1829 1838

No. of haciendas 276 236 235 231

Average Pop. per unit 51 46 44 48

Average Tributarios per unit 15 12 13 15

Leading ToE 10% of Haciendas No. of. haciendas 28 24 24 23

Total Population 5,500 4,112 4,185 4,293

No. of Tributarios 1,510 1,020 1,197 1,282

% of Total Pop. 39.3% 38.4% 40.9% 38.8%

% of Total Tributarios 37.3% 36.1% 39.1% 37.8%

Average Pop. per unit 196 171 174 186

Standard Deviation 103 59 57 67

Coefficient of Variation .52 .34 .33 .36

Table 7-3. Number of Haciendas and their Average PoEulation and Average Number of Tributarios, hr Pueblo,

the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786 1803 1829 1838

p~ Trib(Hac)~ Trib(Hac)~ Trib(Hac)~ Trib(Hac)~

1. Chulumani 15 ·(18) 52 8 (11) 38 6 (12) 18 7 (12) 23

2. Irupana 5 (43) 15 4 (31) 12 5 (31) 14 7 (25) 17

3. Laza 13 (13) 45 10 (11) 36 7 ( 8) 23 5 (12) 16

4. Suri 6 (20) 22 5 (21) 14 3 (12) 10 5 (12) 13

5. Ocabaya 9 ( 8) 30 4 ( ·9) 16 6 ( 5) 25 7 ( 5) 19

6. Chirca 15 (31) 43 9 ·(22) 42 8 (28) 24 8 (27) 26

7. Pacallo 12 (27) 48 10 (22) 38 11 (21) 40 14 (21) 44

8. Coroico 18 (69) 67 19 (56) 72 20 (63) 68 22 (58) 75

9. Coripata· 28 ·(34) 98 17 (41) 67 23 (37) 77 28 (35) 92

10. Chupe 13 ( 9) 40 9 ( 9) 32 7 (14) 20 6 (17) 22

11. Yanacachi 20 ( 4) 78 H ( 4) 66 22 ( 4) 64 16 ( 7) 52

Total 15 (276) 67 12 (237) 45 13 (235) 44 15 (231) 48

.

325

figure, there is also the evidence from the leading 10 percen

of the haciendas (Table 7-2). These major haciendas change~

their relative control over the Yungas' yanacona population little during the period of the fol}r censuses. Moreover we

can see a progressive narrowing of the dispersi.on around the

mean figure--as measured in the coefficient of variation-­which shows that all estates were moving to a more common lower holding of yanaconas than previously.

This phenomenon of general declining populations on all estates raises some interesting quest.~ons about the little known relationship between hacendado and yanacona--or land­less peon--on the Yungas estates. It is traditionally as­

sumed that the standard means of payment for Indian laborers

on the haciendas was the granting to them of usufruct lands for their own use. In examining numerous land sales of Yun­

gas coca haciendas, I have never found any listing of yana­

~ in the sales, nor any monetary evaluation given to them. Nor have I seen any indication of wages being paid-­

though it is s ti 11 unclear "as to how yanaconas were attract­

ed initially to carJ:_y out the very time-consuming task of terracing which was {equired for almost all the coca hacien­

das. That is during tha period when no land was available for use by either the hacendado or the Indians. But once such fields were cleared, all sources seem to agree that nei­

ther food, seed, tools, nor wages were provided by the land­

owner. Thus there appears no incentive for a hacendado to

expel workers from his cleared fields during times of crises.

Given this fact, the resulting mobility of the yanaconas in

times of crises, would seem to suggest that these workers

were not as tied down to the haciendas by non-market mecha­

nisms, as has traditionally been assumed. That is, that it

was primarily the availability of land and the possibility of

selling their production in the coca markets (yanaconas in a

1796 survey of coca production in the valley produced 25

326

percent, or some 50,000 cestos, of the region's coca output)

which provided the key incentives and constraints for workers

living on the haciendas. 6 Once the retrenchment of the coca

market occurred, these haciendas no longer became such at­tractive places for work and voluntary out-migration occurred.

Although the mean number of workers per estate declined

in most estates .and in most regions, the pace of that decline

was not identical, and in fact there occurred some changes in

the relative importance of production among the various pueb­

los. It is clear that in the crisis years of 1803 and 1829,

there was a systematic drop in the relative number of yana­

~ in all districts of the Yungas, except for the two

leading centers of production--Coroico and Coripata--and the

small zones of Chupe and Yanacachi. With the revival of 1838,

some of this trend toward increasing concentration of yana­

~ population was reversed, though the patterns of distri­

bution did not return to pre-crisis levels. Such areas as

Chulumani, Laza, Suri, Ocabaya and even the formerly third­

ranked Pacallo, all continued to decline in relative impor­

tance and were unable to recover their former significance.

On the other hand Coripata and Coroico, the two leading pop­

ulation zones for yanaconas, increased their relative impor­

tance census after census, and went from 57 percent of the total population in 1786 to 68 percent of the total yanaconas

in 1838 (Table 7-4). This change occurred despite the fact

that there was little change.during all of these censuses in

their relative number of haciendas--which stood at only two­

fifths of.the total of all estates or in the average number

of yanaconas per hacienda. Thus while average population de­

clined in most areas and generally across the board from

6Herbert $. Klein, "Hacienda and Free Community in Eighteenth-Century Alto Peru: A Demographic Study~of the Aymara Population of the Districts of Chulumani and Pacajes in 1786," Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2 (November, 1975), p. 215.

·:;:;

~\

327

Table 7-4. Percentage of Yanac9na PoEulation by Pueblo, the Yungas, 1786-1838

Pueblo 1786 1803 1829 1838

1. Chulumani 5.9 3.9 2.1 2.5

2. Irupana 4.6 3.4 4.1 3.9

3. Laza 4.1 3.7 1.8 1. 7

4. Suri 3.2 2.7 1.2 1.4

5. Ocabaya. 1. 7 1.3 1.2 0.9

6. Chirca 9.6 8.6 6.6 6.3

7. Pacallo 9.2 7.9 8.1 8.3

8. Coroico 33.0 37.7 41. 7 39.1

9. Coripata 23.9 25.7 27.8 29.2

10. Chupe 2.6 2.7 2.7 3.4

11. Yanacachi 2.2 2.5 2.5 3.3

larger and smaller estates, some zones clearly lost a very

significant share of ·~heir"'·Jia.cienda populations as a result . ' of the crisis. ·'*

Just as there ~as a corresponding decline in the number " of haciendas and their .overall populations, there seems to

have occurred the same phenomenon on the free community land~

of the Aymara peasants. Their overall ayllu populations re­

sponded in the same manner as the yanaconas On the haciendas,

losing populations in the census of 1803, suffering further

losses in 1829 and recovering in 1838. Thus their percentagE

import'ance within the Yungas changed little from census to

census.

There were, however, some important internal differen­

ces--as might be expected--between the two major groupings or

the ayllus: the more wealthy and stable originarios who had

direct access to lands, and the less favored and more recent­

ly arrived agregados who more often than not worked for the

=·

328

originarios. While the originarios were able to retain their

population in the 1803 census, they too would suffer the ef­

fects of the crisis in the censuses of 1829 and 1838, con­

sistently losing population. The agregados, however, responded in a manner quite si­

milar to the yanaconas, both losing similar numbers of per­

sons, on average, in the two censuses of 1803 and 1829, and

both recovering somewhat in 1838 (Table 7-5).

Within this relatively common picture of change in the ayllus, there was, as with the case of the haciendas, some

relative changes in regional importance. In examining the two largest pueblos in terms of total ayllu population--those

of Chulumani and Yanacachi--it is obvious that some struc­

tural changes were also occurring. Thus Chulumani, while maintaining its position as the leading zone of ayllu popu­

lation, progresively lost population. It fell from some 34

pe:i;cent of the provincial originario and agregado combined population to only 24 percent by 1838 (Table 7-6). Equally,

the second place Yanacachi, progressively increased its share to 17 percent. Thus trends unleashed in terms of regional marginalization and/or change were also present in the free communities as well as the haciendas.

In one area, however, the ayllus were sharply different from t:i).e haciendas, and that is in the number of uni ts in op­

eration throughout the four censuses. Up to 1829 it retained

all its ayllus intact. In that year, however, the ayllu of San Roque in Irupana was turned into a hacienda, and for un­

explained re:1sons the ayllu of Siripaya in Yanacachi was omitted from the 1829 census, but again registered as such in 1838. It lost another two ayllus--that of Choclla in Yana­

cachi and Guancapampa in Chirca--which became haciendas in

1838, but in the meantime•added two more in Suri (Charapacci and Toriri). These changes meant that overall, the number of

units changed little in the period of the four censuses.

329

Table 7-5. Number of Ayllus and their Average Originario and Agregado Population per unit, the Yungas, 1786-1838

(number of ayllus in parentheses)a

Pueblo 1786

Orig. -----P:greg. 1803

0 -- A 1829 1838

0 --A 0 A

1. Chulumani 137 (7) 188 140 (7) 159 105 (7) 98 93 (7) 102

2. Irupana

3. Laza

4. Suri

5. Ocabaya

6. Chirca

. 7. Pacallo

8. Corioco

9. Coripata

10. Chupe

11. Yanacachi

41 (6)

39 (3)

40

51

65 (3) 99

41 (5) 47

66 (4) 106

158

79

148

(1)

(1)

"-'* (3)_;,

(4)

44

272 ,, .. :~

159

" 116

General average 81 (37) 106

32 (6) 29 36 (5) 32 35 .(5) 40

41 (3) 48 25 (3) 47 30 (3) 68

63 (3) 53 46 (3) so 42 (5) 53

64 (5) 24 58 (5) 33 66 (5) 44

75 (4) 70 66 (4) 61 65 (3) 92

(1) 61

149 (1) 287 179

(1) 67

(1) 350 224

(1) 48

(1) 430 ...

73

139

(3) 132 72

(4) 103 160

(3) 98

( 4) 143

68

131

(3) 112

(4) 107

84 (37) 85 75 (36) 78 72 (37) 84

aThere were two ayllus whose members were listed and taxed as agregados only: Guancane in Pacallo and Choclla in Yanacachi--which became a hacien­da in 1838. For this reason the average originarios are calculated from 35 ayllus in 1786 and 1803; 34 in 1829 and 36 in 1838. All agregados are calculated from number of units given in table.

330

Table 7-6. Percentage of Originario and Agregado Population by Pueblo, the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786 1803 1829 1838

Pueblo Orig. ~· Orig. ~· Orig. ~· Orig. ~· 1. Chulumani 33.9 33.5 33.3 35.4 -28.8 24.5 25.0 22.9

2. Irupana 8.6 6.2 6.6 5.5 7.0 5.8 6.7 6.4

3. Laza 4.2 3.9 4.2 4.6 2.9 5.1 3.5 6.5

4. Suri 6.9 7.5 6.5 5.1 5.4 5.3 8.0 8.5

5. Ocabaya 7.3 6.0 10.9 3.8 11.3 5.9 12.6 7.0

6. Chirca 9.3 10.8 10.3 8.9 10.4 8.8 7.5 8.9

7. Pacallo - 1.1 - 1.9 - 2.4 - 1.5

8. Coroico 5.6 6.9 5.1 9.1 7.0 12.5 8.6 13.8

9. Coripata 10. Chupe 8.4 12.2 7.5 12.6 8.5 10.5 7.8 10.8

11 . ·Yanacachi 15.8 11.8 15.7 13.l 18.8 19.2 20.2 13.7

C!early, the ayllus, with their more mixed economies and

poorer quality coca leaf production did not simply go out of business, as did the haciendas, but found alternative oppor­tunities for their populations either in shifting to subsis­

tence agriculture or other products desired in barter or mar­

ket exchanges by the highland peasant communities. This may explain the persistence of the original landed

members of the community, ~ut not of the agregados. In com­

paring Chulumani with the poorer highland province of Paca­jes in 1786, I noted in a previous study that the greater im­

portance 0£ the agregados in the ayllus of Chulumani reflect­

ed that zone's ability to attract the migrant laborers.7

How

then, after the crisis had set in, could the Chulumani region

ayllus maintain that· attraction? The reason for this

7Ibid., pp. 203-204.

••

331

stability may be related to extra-Yungas conditions, and in fact may reflect the still relatively positive conditions of

the Yungas ayllus in relati~nship to the rest of the ayllus

in the entire region of Alto Peru, for the Yungas communi­

ties were still the most highly taxed and evaluated by the

Crown of any free commµnities throughout Alto Peru, and their access to rich semi-tropical lands producing citrus crops, bananas, and other products not available to the majority of

al tiplano communi t-fes meant that these communities still were

important poles of attraction for free but landless Indian peasants and their fa!'lilies. Thus, while coca income m·igh t

decline, 'other goods were available for barter in the alti­

plano. Equally, their production of lesser quality coca leaf, compared to the suppo~edly higher quality product grown on

the haciendas, probably meant that their coca output was less influenced by the mining decline than the haciendas', for

the miners could afford to buy the best quality products, while ayllus produced poorer quality coca which probably went

primarily to traditiona~·aglticu1tural peasants on the alti­plano, a market that seems to have held steady during the mining crisis. ~

While there was Q'tviously an important impact then, of

the crisis of mine produ~tion and its coca consumption on the

coca plantations of theYungas valleys of the Chulumani dis­trict, it is also clear that this impact was not catastroph­ic. Evid_ently the Yungas coca producers, both haciendas and

ayllus, were able to find a source for the majority of the

coca that was formerly consumed by the altiplano miners.

Where the cash for purchasing the coca harvests for the Yun­gas came from, however, is difficult to determine given the

general decline of mining and its overall impact on the rest

of the economy. The fact that the Yungas had always sent

some output to the southern Peruvian Andean area, which had a

mining boom in this period, could have been one alternative

332

market. Equally, it might be that the decline of the domina-

ting impact of mining on Bolivian agriculture may have per­mitted the development of a more complex barter and marketing system among the Indians, exclusive of the normal government taxes and exploitations, thereby permitting a greater possi­bility of savings on the altiplano communities and haciendas and their consequent increased ability to purchase coca.

However much these new and altered markets may have com­pensated local producers, it was evident that the miners were still the most desirable market. The increase in population, and presumably of coca output, by 1838, was clearly a reflec­tion of the returning prosperity of the mines of the alti­plano. The fact that the region could respond so positively and quickly to the increasing mine production meant that un­used capacity existed in the Yungas despite the existence of alternative markets, and that even though these alternative markets may have been reasonably developed, they could not . fully compensate for the older but more remunerative mining markets for coca.

Aside from determining the nature and ext.ent of the im­pact of- the altiplano silver mining crisis on the Yungas coca zones, an analysis of these four censuses provides an oppor­tunity to re-examine the demographic variables which I pre­viously studied in a synchronic study of the census of 1786 and the two districts of Chulumani and Pacajes. From the perspective of these 52 years, what were the significant con­tinuities and changes in the gross demographic and economic indices which.we have examined?

To begin with, it seems quite clear that the group with the least access to land rights and stability, the agregados on ,the ayllus, showed demographic indices most closely associ­ated with a migrant population. Consistently the agregados (except in 182g) had the highest ratio of males to females of

all three groups (Table 7-7). Equally, their working adult

Table 7-7. Sex Ratios and Estimates of Economically Active Population among the Aymara Population,

the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786

I. Sex Ratios

Yanaconas 121.5

Originarios 110. 7

Agregados 134.3

(Total Ayllu) (123.8)

Total Prov. a 122.3

II. % Tributarios

Yanaconas 29.0

Originarios 30.7 · Agregados 36.6

(Total Ayllu) (34.1) ., ___ .,..

Total Prov. 30:6

~

III. % Economically ~tive

" Yanaconas 60.1 ~

Originarios 59.0 Agregados 66.0

(Total Ayllu) (62. 7)

Total Prov. 60.7

1803

122 •. 7

118.2

133.2

(125. 7)

123.8

26.4

30.9

36.0

(33.5)

"'· 29,0

57.2

59. 7

63.6

(61. 7)

58.8

1829

119.5

134.9

131.6

(134.0)

124.2

29.9

34.3

36.6

(35.7)

31.9

58.0

61.2

65.4

(62.8)

59.6

1838

125.6

132.7

152.0

(142 .9)

131.2

30.7

32.2

39.7

(36.3)

32.6

59.8

59.2

64.5

(62.1)

60.6

aThis total provincial figure includes only the eleven com­parable pueblos.

bThis consists of all adults between approximately 14-50 years and is made up of solteras, casadas, tributarios, and pr6ximos.

333

334

population both for all adults (14-50) and men (18-50) was

consistently higher than the other two categories of workers

as well. Clearly these were indices of a population strongly

influenced by recent migration.

In examining the usually less reliable child/women ra­

tio, which consists of all children under 14 years of age

(ninos and ninas categories) per 100 women over 14 years of age (solteras, casadas and viudas), it is also evident that the agregados had fewer young children than any other group.

Again, this finding strongly supports the well-known patterns among the traditionally migrating populations (Table 7-8).

Otherwise an examination of this ratio shows that it has lit­

tle clearly perceived relationship with changes in overall population trends or with the impact of the decline of mining.

This corroborates its lack of predictive power when measured

in its relationship to poverty and wealth in a comparative

analysis of Pacajes and Chulumani in 1786. Moreover, whereas I had assumed the higher child/women ratios among originarios indicated the possibility of higher standards of living for

the originarios, in fact, this was not a consistent finding in the later censuses of the Yungas.

In this diachronic study of the wealthy coca-producing district of Chulumani in the period running from the end of Spanish colonial domination to the early decades of the new

Bolivian Republic, certain basic factors are clearly deline­ated by the revisitas. The tributary population of the Yun­

gas, whether working on the haciendas, or living on the free

communities, all responded in some fashion to the restric­tion of coca markets as a result of the severe and relative­ly sustained early nineteenth-century crises of altiplano

silver mining. All three population categories of peasants~­

yanaconas, originarios and forasteros, lost population in the crisis years of 1803 and 1829, and all recovered popula­

tion losses somewhat in the moderate boom period of 1838.

\

335

Table 7-8. Child/Women Ratios for the Yungas, 1786-1838

1786 1803 1829 1838 Yanaconas 108.4 128.0 141.3 126.7 Originarios 124. 7 124.0 141.1 146.8 Agregados 87.5 119.0 119.2 134.6 (Total Ayllu) (103.0) (121. 5) (129.7): (140. 2)

Thus their relative positions within the province changed

little despite impressive population losses. Moreover, that

population loss spread evenly among the largest· and· smallest coca plantations- -whether haciendas or ayllus - ~which also

meant that the population responded relative!~ freely to mar­ket incentives, no matter what its relationship was to the

land. Though all groups.,_expe""'rienced changes, it was in fact the originarios, with most direct access to land, who were less influenced by th~_ general economic crises. But the

landless, whether on tie estates or the communities, did mi­grate out of the zone during times of crisis for coca pro­duction and returned during the time of its improvement.

The fact that all units lost population resulted, as we have seen, in the paradoxical outcome that there was both a loss of haciendas and a loss of average population size per

unit. In this respect, of course, the ayllus just lost pop­ulation, but by and large retained their number of units of production and ownership intact. It was only in the area of

regional production, where the crises engendered some long

term changes, more sharply developed among the hacienda popu­lations than among the ayllu peoples, though evident in both. Regions such as Chulumani lost importance in both hacienda

and ayllu populations, while Coripata and to a iesser extent

336

Coroico were the big gainers. I_n terms of the demographic indices of sex ratios, work

force and child/women ratios, the same trends which were. evident in previous studies of Pacajes and the Yungas in 1786

showed up as well in the longitudinal study of the Yungas Aymara populations. Agregados exhibited the classis traits of migrants with higher sex ratios and higher percentages of working adults to dependent populations. Unfortunately, the child/women ratio; which served as a very crude proxy for a fertility ratio, showed no consistent pattern here as well as in previous studies.

While the above demographic evidence is only one part of the picture, i·ts relative availability, as opposed to appar­ently non-existent production and price data, makes it a rel­atively unique source.

8 Thus, despite its limitations, an

analysis of these demographic responses to economic change suggest that our traditional perceptions of relatively stable and non-market responsive peasantries, at least for Bolivia, must be seriously revised. It also suggests for the yanaco­~ a possibly much more market orientation and independence of hacendados than previously thought.

8Appe.t).ded to this study are population Tables 7A-7D which provide some of the data upon which this analysis was based.

/

Table 7-A. The Aymara PoEulation of the Yungas in 1786, for the Eleven Principal Pueblos, by Age and

Sex Categories of the Revisitas

Yanaconas Originarios Agregados Age and Sex on on on (Total Total Categories Haciendas Ayllus A~llus Ayllu) PoEulation

Hombres 7,672 1,484 2,248 (3,732) 11,404 Niiios 2,568 569 569 (1, 138) . 3, 706 Pr6ximos 440 0 99 ( 99) 539 Tributarios 4,049 867 1,436 (2, 303) 6,352 Reservados 615 48 144 ( 192) 807

Mujeres 6,313 1,341 1,674 (3,015) 9,328 Niiias 2,051 li9l ~ ( 969) 3,020 Solteras 471 83 131 ( 214) 685 Casadas 3,394 689 923 (l,612) 5,006 Viudas 397 78 142 ( 220) 617

Total a 13,985 2,825 3,922 (6, 747) 20,732 Ausentes ---;rs --0 ---i:-6 ( 16) ---rr

aThis total does not include 704 Indians listed as residents in the urban centers of the pueblos, or otherwise not associated with an ayllu or hacienda. ~~-

"-..:·' ""· Table 7-B. The Aymara Population of the Yungas in 1803,

for the E!even PrinciEal Pueblos, by Age and S~ Categories of the Revisitas

""i;~

Yanaconas Originarios Agregados Age and Sex on on on (Total Total Categories Haciendas Ayllus Ayllus Ayllu) Population

Hombres 5,903 1,590 1,796 (3,386) 9,289 Ninos 2,249 570 540 (l,110) 3,359 Pr6ximos 325 58 68 ( 126) 451 Tributarios 2,825 908 1,131 (2, 037) 4,862 Reservados 504 56 57 ( 113) 617

Mtijeres 4,810 1,345 1,348 (2,693) 7,503 Ninas 1,715 490 486 ( 976) 2,691 Solteras 302 125 83 ( 208) 510 Casadas 2,670 663 719 (l,382) 4,052 Viudas 123 67 60 ( 127) 250

Total a 10, 713 2,935 3,144 ~ 16,792 Ausentes --1-1 --2 7 ( 9) ----w

aThis total does not include 155 Indians listed as. residents in the urban centers of the pueblos, or otherwise not associated with an ayllu or hacienda. ~~-

337

338

Table 7-.C. The Aymara Population of the Yungas in 1829, for the Eleven Principal Pueblos, by Age and

Sex Cate~f the Revisitasa

Yanaconas Originarios Agregados Age and Sex on on on (Total Total Categories Haciendas Ayllus Ayllus Ayllu) Po2ulation

Hombres 5,573 1,468 1,588 (3,018) 8,591 Ninos 2,041 ---s20 -m ( 946) 2,987 PrOximos 209 46 46 ( 92) 301 Tributarios 3,065 877 1,033 (1,883) 4,948 Reservados 258 25 72 ( 97) 355

Mujeres 4,662 1,088 1,207 (2, 252) 6,914 Nii!as 1,884 421 ~ ( 860) 2,744 Solteras 205 64 38 ( 100) 305 Casadas 2,462 577 683 (1, 237) 3,699 Viudas 111 26 29 ( 55) 166

Totalb. 10,235 2,556 2,795 (5, 270) 15,505 Ausentes n.g. n.g. n.g. n.g. n.g.

aln this and the subsequent census of 1838, the vice-canton of Milluhuaya has been reassigned to the pueblo of Yanacachi, as it had existed in cen­suses prior to this date.

bThis total does not include 252 Indians listed as residents in the urban certters of the pueblos, or otherwise not associated with an ayllu or hac­ienda. No ausentes were listed in this census. --- --

Table 7-0. The A):'.!!!ara Po2ulation·of the Yungas in 1838, for the.Eleven Princi2al Pueblos, b):'. Age and

Sex Categories of the Revisitas

Yanaconas Originarios Agregados a

Age and Sex on on on (Total Total Categories Haciendas Ayllus A):'.llUS Ayllu) Po2ulation

Hombres 6,167 1,484 1,882 (3,366) 9,533 Nifios 2,064 49T --sso (1, 041) 3,105 PrOxirnos 395 91 48 ( 139) 534 Tributarios 3,395 839 1,239 (2,078) 5,473 Reservados 313 63 45 ( 108) 421

Mujeres 4,909 i,118 1,238 (2,356) 7,265 Nifias 1,833 466 476 ( 942) 2,775 Solteras 397 107 69 ( 176) 573 Casadas 2,437 \ 503 655 (1,158) 3,595 Viudas 242 42 38 ( 80) 322

Totalb 11,076 2,602 3,120 (5, 722) 16,798 """"AiiSen tes 34 --4 --rr (19) --5-3

al have grouped the vagos, a category first used in this census, with the agregados. For my justification, see Note 5.

bThis total does not include 371 Indians listed as residents in the urban centers of the pueblos, or otherwise not associated with an ayllu or hac­ienda. --- --

8 Population and Space in Eighteenth Century Buenos Aires

Lyman L. Johnson and Susan Migden Socolow*

During the eighteenth century Buenos Aires became a ma­jor city in Spain's American empire. Beginning in the first decades, and continuing unabated throughout the century

trade, both legal and contraband, and increased mi~itary ac­tivity in the Rio de la Plata gave a new economic and strat­

egic importance to the city. Gradually Buenos Aires was

transformed from a backwater of Empire to a thriving bureau­cratic and commercial center.

This study, part of ongo.ing research on the nature and growth of colonial Buenos Aires, concentrates on the two most important aspects of the ··c-lty~s urban growth--the numerical

or demographic patterns of that growth, and the reflection of . ""' incre.ased numbers in t~ geographical or spatial patterns in

-;

which inhabitants of the city lived and worked. Our future research will, we believe, present a more c.omplete descrip­tion and analysis of the development of the colonial popula­tion and society. Below we present a general discussion of the develo.pment of the city, based on census data and pub­

lished studies.

The city of Buenos Aires was .founded on the banks of the Rio de la Plata, a broad, shallow estuary of the Parana Riv­

er, where the lower reaches of the Matanza River, the Ria­

chuelo, entered the larger waterway. Geographically the site

*The authors are Assistant Professors of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Emory University, Atlanta, respectively. Thanks is given to the UNCC Foundation and the Tinker Foundation for the their support of this research.