$Unique_ID{how04905} $Pretitle{} $Title{World Civilizations: The World Shrinks, 1450-1750 Colonial Economies And Governments} $Subtitle{} $Author{Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B.} $Affiliation{} $Subject{silver spain america spanish mining indian peru american century indies} $Date{1992} $Log{} Title: World Civilizations: The World Shrinks, 1450-1750 Book: Chapter 25: Early Latin America Author: Stearns, Peter N.;Adas, Michael;Schwartz, Stuart B. Date: 1992 Colonial Economies And Governments Spanish America was an agrarian society in which the vast majority of people, perhaps 80 percent of the population, lived and worked on the land. Yet in terms of America's importance to Spain, mining was the essential activity and the basis of Spain's rule in the Indies. Until the 18th century, the whole Spanish maritime commercial system was essentially organized around the mining economy and the exchange of America's precious metals for manufactured goods from Europe. It was this exchange that began to fit Latin America into the New World economy as a somewhat dependent area producing unprocessed exports to trade with western Europe. While the booty of conquest provided some wealth, most of the precious metal sent across the Atlantic came from the postconquest mining industry. Gold was found in the Caribbean, Colombia, and Chile, but it was silver far more than gold that formed the basis of Spain's wealth in America. The Silver Heart Of Empire The major silver mining strikes were made in Mexico between 1545 and 1565 and in Peru at roughly the same time. Great silver mining towns developed. Potosi in Upper Peru (in what is now Bolivia) was the largest mine of all, producing about 80 percent of all the Peruvian silver. In the early 17th century over 160,000 people lived and worked in the town and its mine. Peru's Potosi and Mexico's Zacatecas became wealthy mining centers with opulent churches and a luxurious way of life for some, but as one viceroy of Peru commented, it was not silver that was sent to Spain, "but the blood and sweat of Indians." Mining labor was provided by a variety of workers. The early use of Indian slaves and encomienda workers in the 16th century was gradually replaced by a system of labor drafts. By 1572 the mining mita in Peru was providing about 13,000 workers a year to Potosi alone. Similar labor drafts were also used in Mexico, but by the 17th century the mines in both places also had large numbers of wage workers willing to brave the dangers of mining in return for the relatively good wages. Although Indian methods were used at first, most mining techniques were European in origin. After 1580, silver mining depended on a process of amalgamation with mercury to extract the silver from the ore-bearing rock. The discovery of a mountain of mercury at Huancavelica in Peru aided American silver production. Potosi and Huancavelica became the "great marriage of Peru" and the basis of silver production in South America. According to Spanish law, all subsoil rights belonged to the crown, but the mines and the processing plants were owned by private individuals who were permitted to extract the silver in return for paying one-fifth of production to the government, which also profited from its monopoly of the mercury needed to produce the silver. Although there is considerable debate about Spanish American mining output, some points seem clear. Silver production expanded rapidly after 1580 and crested by 1640. In this period, production from Peru outstripped that in Mexico. Both areas then experienced a steady decline caused by disruption of the mercury supply and mismanagement, although the crisis seems to have been more silver failing to reach Spain rather than difficulties in production. Still, there was decline in silver output until the mid-18th century, when there was a new mining boom. Mexico's mines emerged as the leader of American production. Mining served as a stimulus to many other aspects of the economy, even in areas far removed from the mines. Workers had to be fed and the mines supplied. In Mexico, where most of the mines were located beyond the area of settled preconquest Indian population, large Spanish-style farms developed to raise cattle, sheep, and wheat. To Peruvian mines high in the Andes from distant regions ran a steady stream of supplies: mercury, mules, food, clothing, and even coca leaves, used to deaden hunger and make the work at high altitudes less painful. From Spain's perspective, mining was the heart of the colonial economy. Haciendas And Villages While mining gave America meaning to Spain's colonial enterprise, Spanish America remained predominantly an agrarian economy. In highland Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and New Granada where large sedentary populations existed, Indian communal agriculture of traditional crops continued. As populations dwindled, Spanish ranches and farms began to emerge to feed the populations of the cities. The colonists, faced with declining Indian populations, also found landownership more attractive. Rural estates, based on family ownership and which produced grains, grapes, and livestock, developed throughout the central areas of Spanish America. Most of their labor force came from Indians who had left their communities and from people of mixed Indian and European heritage. These rural estates, or haciendas, producing primarily for consumers in America, became the basis of wealth and power for the local aristocracy in many regions. Although some plantation crops, such as sugar and later cacao, were exported to Europe from Spanish America, they made up only a small fraction of the value of the exports in comparison to silver. In some regions where Indian communities continued to hold traditional farming lands, an endemic competition between haciendas and village communities emerged. Industry And The Commercial System Industry was not lacking. Sheep raising in areas, such as Ecuador, New Spain, and Peru, led to the development of small textile sweatshops, or obrajes, where common cloth was produced, usually by Indian women workers. America became self-sufficient for its basic foods and material goods and looked to Europe only for fine (and costly) luxury items not locally available. Still, from Spain's perspective and that of the larger world economy taking shape in the early modern centuries, the American "kingdoms" had a silver heart and the whole Spanish commercial system was organized around that fact. Spain took an exclusivist position, essentially allowing only Spaniards to trade with America and even then under tight restrictions. All American trade from Spain after the mid-16th century was funneled through the city of Seville and, later, the nearby port of Cadiz. The Board of Trade in Seville registered ships and passengers, kept charts, collected duties, and in general controlled the Indies trade. It often worked in conjunction with a merchant guild, or consulado, in Seville that had virtual monopoly rights over goods shipped to America and handled much of the silver received in return. Linked to branches in Mexico City and Lima, the consulados kept tight control over the trade and were able to keep prices high in the colonies. For most of the 17th century, for example, the consulado had such power that most goods moving from Spain to the Rio de la Plata on the Atlantic coast of South America had to be shipped to Panama, carried across the isthmus, reshipped to Lima, and then carried across the Andes, a trip that greatly added to their cost and to the profits of the merchant guild. As the trade of the Indies grew and the precious metals flowed to Spain, other Europeans looked on with envious eyes. To discourage foreign rivals and pirates, the Spanish eventually worked out a convoy system in which two fleets sailed annually from Spain, traded their goods for precious metals in Mexico and Panama, as well as silver from Peru, and then rendezvoused at Havana, Cuba, before returning to Spain. The fleet system was well planned and included a number of elements. The fleets were made possible by the development of the large, heavily armed ships called galleons that were used to carry the silver belonging to the crown. Two great galleons a year also sailed from Manila in the Philippines to Mexico loaded with Chinese silks, porcelain, and lacquer. These goods were then transshipped on the convoy to Spain along with the American silver. In the Caribbean, heavily fortified ports, such as Havana and Cartegena (Colombia), provided shelter for the treasure ships, while coastguard fleets cleared the waters of potential raiders. Although cumbersome, the convoys (which continued until the 1730s) were relatively successful. While pirates and Spain's European enemies sometimes captured individual ships, and although some ships were lost to storms and other disasters, only one fleet was lost, to the Dutch in 1627. In general, the supply of American silver to Spain was continuous and made the colonies seem worth the effort, but the reality of American treasure was more complicated. Much of the wealth flowed out of Spain to pay for Spain's European wars, its long-term debts, and the purchase of manufactured goods to be sent back to the Indies. Probably less than half of the silver remained in Spain itself. The arrival of American treasure also contributed to a sharp rise in prices and a general inflation, first in Spain and then throughout western Europe during the 16th century. At no time did the American treasure make up more than one-fourth of Spain's state revenues, which is to say that the wealth of Spain depended more on the taxes levied on its own population than it did on the exploitation of its Indian subjects. The seemingly endless supply of silver did, however, stimulate bankers to continue to loan money to Spain, because the prospect of the great silver fleet was always enough to offset the falling credit of the Spanish rulers and of the sometimes bankrupt government. As early as 1619, Sancho de Moncada wrote that "the poverty of Spain resulted from the discovery of the Indies," but there were few who could see the long-term costs of empire. Ruling An Empire Spain controlled its American empire through a carefully regulated administrative and bureaucratic system. Sovereignty rested with the crown, based not on the right of conquest, but on a papal grant that awarded the Indies to Castile in return for its services in bringing those lands and peoples into the Christian community. Some Indians found this curious and could not understand how the pope could assign to Castile what was not his in the first place. Some European theologians agreed, but Spain was careful to bolster its rule in other ways. The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) between Castile and Portugal clarified the spheres of influence and right of possession of the two kingdoms by drawing a hypothetical north-south line around the globe and reserving to Portugal newly discovered lands (and their route to India) to the east of the line and to Castile all lands to the west. Thus, Brazil fell within the Portuguese sphere. France, England, and other European nations would later raise their own objections to the Spanish and Portuguese claims. The Spanish Empire became a great bureaucratic system built on a juridical core and staffed to a large extent by letrados, or university-trained lawyers from Spain. The modern division of powers was not clearly defined in the Spanish system, so that judicial officers also exercised legislative and administrative authority. Spanish society was highly legalistic and the formulation of law was a major attribute of authority. The body of laws for the Indies was so large and varied that it took almost a century to complete a great law code, the Recopilacion (1681), which despite its defects and inconsistencies became the basis of law in the Indies. The State And The Church The king ruled through the Council of the Indies in Spain that issued the laws and advised him on all matters dealing with the colonies. Within the Indies, Spain created two viceroyalties in the 16th century, one based on Mexico City and the other on Lima. Viceroys, high-ranking nobles who were direct representatives of the king, wielded broad military, legislative, and, when they had legal training, judicial powers. The viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru were then subdivided into ten judicial divisions controlled by superior courts, or audiencias, staffed by professional royal magistrates who helped to make law as well as apply it. At the local level, royally appointed magistrates in the towns and villages were the direct representatives of the state, applying the laws, collecting taxes, and assigning the work requirements on Indian communities. It is little wonder that they often were highly criticized for bending the law and taking advantage of the Indians under their control. Below them was a myriad of minor officials, customs and tax collectors, municipal officers, and inspectors who made bureaucracy both a living and a way of life. To some extent the clergy formed another branch of the state apparatus, although, of course, it had other functions and goals as well. The conquest of America had been a remarkable missionary as well as military effort. Catholic religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits carried out the widespread conversion of the Indians, establishing churches in the towns and villages of sedentary Indians and setting up missions in frontier areas. Taking seriously the pope's admonition to Christianize the peoples of the new lands as the primary justification for Spain's rule, some of the early missionaries became ardent defenders of Indian rights and even admirers of aspects of Indian culture. For example, the Franciscan priest Fray Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590) became an expert in the Nahuatl language and composed a bilingual encyclopedia of Aztec culture, which was based on methods very similar to those used by modern anthropologists. Other clerics wrote histories, grammars, and studies of Indian language and culture. Some were like Diego de Landa, Bishop of Yucatan (1547), who admired much about the culture of the Maya but who so detested their religion and feared its survival that he burned all their ancient books and tortured many Maya suspected of backsliding from Christianity. The recording and analysis of Indian cultures were designed primarily to provide tools for conversion. In the core areas of Peru and New Spain, the missionary church was eventually replaced by an institutional structure of parishes and bishoprics. Archbishops sat in the major capitals, and a complicated church hierarchy developed, which reflected the demographic and economic realities of each area. Since the holders of all ecclesiastical positions were nominated by the Spanish crown, the clergy tended to be a major support of state policy as well as a primary influence on it. It was no accident that in the Recopilacion, the great law code of the Indies, the first section dealt with "the Holy Catholic Faith." The Catholic church profoundly influenced the cultural and intellectual life of the colonies in many ways. The construction of churches, especially the great baroque cathedrals of the capitals, stimulated the work of architects and artists, usually reflective of European models but sometimes taking up local themes and subjects. The printing presses, introduced to America in the early 16th century, always published a high percentage of religious books, as well as works of history, poetry, philosophy, law, and language. Much intellectual life was organized around religion. Schools - such as those of Mexico City and Lima, founded in the 1550s - were run by the clergy and universities and were created to provide training primarily in law and theology, the foundations of state and society. Eventually, over 70 universities flourished in Spanish America. A stunning example of colonial intellectual life was the nun, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1651-1695), author, poet, musician, and social thinker, who was welcomed at the court of the viceroy in Mexico City where her beauty and intelligence were celebrated. She eventually gave up secular concerns and her library, at the urging of her superiors, to concentrate on purely spiritual matters. Even secular authors were heavily influenced by baroque Catholicism. To control the morality and orthodoxy of the population, the tribunal of the Inquisition set up offices in the major capitals, although Indians were usually exempt from its jurisdiction. Overall, church and state combined to create an ideological and political framework for the society and economy of Spanish America.