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Chilean Councilmen and Export Policies, 1600-1699

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Della M. Flusche
Della M. Flusche*
Affiliation:
Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, Michigan
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Extract

As trade between Spain and her American colonies declined in the seventeenth century, interprovincial commerce increased. This change within the Spanish Empire and some of its multiple implications have only recently been recognized and given scholarly attention. Consequently, little information is available on the part colonial municipal governments played in the imperial economic realignment. A case in point is the role of the Santiago cabildo in regard to the export trade which tied Chile's Central Valley, the region administered by that city council, to the Peruvian market economy. Although various studies provide supportive data on this subject, a close scrutiny of the council minutes, focused on policies that regulated outbound commerce and the production from which it flowed, can more clearly delineate the extent of creole initiative and cabildo participation in policy formulation and enforcement. A correlative theme pursued through this appraisal of the records concerns the socio-economic attitudes of the upper levels of society in the last century of Hapsburg rule.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , April 1980 , pp. 479 - 498
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1980

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References

1 Lynch, John, Spain under the Habsburgs (2 vols.; New York: Oxford University Press, 1965–1969), 2, 160–228,Google Scholar presents the new thesis; Pérez, Demetrio Ramos, Minería y comercio interprovincial en hispanoamérica (siglos XVI, XVII, XVIII) (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, 1970), 111–313,Google Scholar has an older view of the century; both mention the Chilean-Peruvian tie, as do Stein, Stanley J. and Hunt, Shane J., “Principal Currents in the Economic Historiography of Latin America,” The Journal of Economic History, 31 (March, 1971), 222–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The council minutes are Actas del cabildo de Santiago, 28 Vols, of Colección de historiadores de Chile y documentos relativos a la historia nacional, ed. José Toribio Medina et al (51 vols. ; Santiago: Elzeviriana et al, 1861–1953). Alemparte, Julio, El Cabildo en Chile colonial: orígenes municipales de las repúblicas hispanoamericanas (2nd ed.; Santiago: Editorial Andrés Bello, 1966),Google Scholar is a helpful study first published in 1940.

3 Information on pastoral-agrarian production and trade is in de Ovalle, Alonso, Histórica relación del reyno de Chile (Rome, 1646), 10–11;Google Scholar de Rosales, Diego, Historia general del reino de Chile, ed. Mackenna, Benjamín Vicuña (3 vols.; Valparaíso: Mercurio, 1877–1878), 1, 192–193;Google Scholar Mackenna, Vicuña, Historia de Valparaíso and Historia de Santiago, Vols. III-IV, X-XI, of Obras Completas (15 vols.; Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1936–1940), 3, 145–166,Google Scholar 379–409; X,passim; Arana, Diego Barros, Historia jeneral de Chile (16 vols.; Santiago: Rafael Jover, 1884–1902), 4, 223–224, 262ff;Google Scholar V, 294–309; and Encina, Francisco Antonio, Historia de Chile de la prehistoria hasta 1891 (20 vols.; Santiago: Nascimento, 1940–1953), IV, 29–35, 151–269.Google Scholar

4 Actas, XXXI, 331–333 (1638); XXXII, 119–120 (1641); XXXVI, 368–369, 404–410 (1664); XXXVIII, 445–446, 448–451 (1675); XLI, 200–201, 332–336 (1678–1679) XLI, 285–287 (1684); Alemparte, passim. Royal legislation on cabildos is in Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias (4 vols., Madrid, 1681), books IV, V, VIII. Pike, Frederick B., “Aspects of Cabildo Economic Regulations in Spanish America under the Hapsburgs,” Inter-American Economic Affairs, 13 (Spring, 1960), 67–86,Google Scholar concentrates on local market regulations; he proposes that urban interests suffered because landed aristocrats dominated cabildos but states that Lima aristocrats often engaged in commerce; see also Lynch, II, 212–224; Fichandler, Joseph B. and O’Brien, Thomas F. Jr., “Santiago, Chile, 1541–1581: A Case Study of Urban Stagnation,” T Am, XXXIII (Oct., 1976), 205–225;Google Scholar and Barbier, Jacques A., “Elite and Cadres in Bourbon Chile,” HAHR, LII (Aug., 1972), 416–435.Google Scholar Some merchants married into the Chilean aristocracy, see Villalobos, Nestor Meza, La conciencia política chilena durante la monarquía (Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1958), 103.Google Scholar The best recent analysis of the Chilean elite and its enterprises is Góngora, Mario, Encomenderos y estancieros: estudios acerca de la constitución social aristocrática de Chile despues de la conquista, 1580–1660 (Santiago: Universidad de Chile, 1970),Google Scholar see 216–218, for data on tallow exports for 1641, 1654–1656, 1659–1660 based on tax records. Many Santiago councilmen were encomenderos in the seventeenth century.

5 Actas, XXX, 288 (1631); XXXI, 189–190, 226–227, 279, 301–302 (1636–1638); XXXII, 114–115 (1641); XXXIV, 118–120 (1651); XXXVH,307 (1669); XXXVIII, 445–446 (1675); XL, 308–309, 332–336 (1679); XLII, 349 (1690); Encina, IV, 32–35; Alemparte, 84–85, 117–120, 137–145; Meza Villalobos, 101–108; Moore, John Preston, The Cabildo in Peru under the Hapsburgs: A Study in the Origins and Powers of the Town Council in the Viceroyalty of Peru, 1530–1700 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1954), 172–173.Google Scholar Compare with Pike, 67–86.

6 Actas, XXXI, 42, 110, 114–115, 127, 149–151, 158(1634–1635); Alemparte, 141–142; Encina, IV, 33. The sessions also mention a cattle contract for the army on the southern frontier and payment to ranchers from the situado (royal military subsidy). Korth, Eugene H., Spanish Policy in Colonial Chile: The Struggle for Social Justice, 1535–1700 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968),Google Scholar a penetrating analysis of the Araucanian question, discusses situado peculation, 212–215. The Toro Mazotes held the trusteeship with its ex officio cabildo seat during much of the century; data on the family is in de Roa y Ursúa, Luis, El Reyno de Chile, 1535-1810: estudio histórico, genealógico y biográfico (Valladolid: Talleres Tipográficas, 1945), 401–402;Google Scholar and Solar, Domingo Amunátegui, La Sociedad chilena del siglo XVIU: mayorazgos i títulos del Castilla (3 vols.; Santiago: Imprenta Barcelona, 1901–1904), 1, 183–230.Google Scholar See Table 1 at the end of this article for production levels and prices.

7 Actas, XXXI, 204–205, 207–208, 210–211 (1636). The Santiago corregidor presided in the cabildo.

8 Actas, XXXI, 210–211, 240–241, 263–264(1636–1637).

9 Actas, XXXI, 278, 280–281, 330, 336–337, 351 (1638). The procurator was an annually elected non-voting member. Information on the Amasas is in Roa y Ursúa, 608; Medina, José Toribio, Diccionario biográfico colonial de Chile (Santiago: Elzeviriana, 1906), 427–428;Google Scholar Meza Villalobos, 103; Amunátegui Solar, III, 135–272.

l0 Actas, XXXI, 318, 330 (1638)

11 Alemparte praises the colonial respect for economic regulation and correctly stresses counciliar power over various aspects of colonial life, but he tends to minimize the role of the higher authorities re export policies.

12 Actas, XXXII, 143–144(1641)

13 Actas, XXXVIII, 445–446, 448–451, 455–456, 469 (1675); XL, 43, 56–58, 69–70,81–83,126, 205–206, 264–265 (1676–1678); Alemparte, 143–144. Data on the Prado family is in Medina, Diccionario, 702–704; Roa y Ursúa, 542–544; Amunátegui Solar, II, 309–371. For a discussion of the Henríquez era including his official and private economic interests see Barros Arana, V, 121–213, 218–222; Encina, III, 336.

14 Actas, XX, 324, (1619); XXXI, 148, 163 (1635–1636); Alemparte, 141-145, 232,; Encina, IV, 33. On the powerful Lisperguer family see Medina, Diccionario, 464–466; Meza Villalobos, 104, 143–146.

15 Actas, XXXVIII, 245–246, 251–254 (1672); XL, 81–83 (1676); the penalty for a bodeguero’s first offense was 200 pesos; for the second it was a 500 peso fine plus two years suspension from warehousing.

16 Actas, XL, 308–309, 330–336, 399–400 (1679–1680); XLI, 107, 190–191 (1682); Alemparte, 144–145; Vicuña Mackenna, Valparaíso, III, 387–389. Data on the Cerdas is in Actas, XXXVII, 37 (1665); Medina, Diccionario, 197–203; Amunátegui Solar, I, 129–181.

17 Examples are Actas, XXIV, 150–151 (1609); XXVIII, 203 (1624); XLI, 140, 175–176 (1682); compare with Pike, 67–86; Moore, 168–184; Alemparte, 117–141, 145–166; Encina, IV, 19–22, 24–26; and Constantino Bayle, Los Cabildos seculares en América española (Madrid: Sapientia, 1952), 453–518.

18 A contemporary account of the earthquake is in Biblioteca Hispano-Cbilena, ed. José Toribio Medina (3 vols.; Santiago, 1897–1899), II, 5–20; see also reports on damage in Actas, XXXIII, 188–190ff (1647); 202 is the price ordinance; Alemparte, 143, 145; Barros Arana, V, 436.

l9 Actas, XXXIII, 257–258, 268, 283–284, 402, 407–411 (1648–1649); XXXIV, 6, 18, 117–120, 139, 142–143, 148–150(1650-1651); Alemparte, 145, mentions missions to Peru.

20 Actas, XXXIV, 482–483 (1654); Encina, IV, 301–302; the contents were not copied into the Actas; perhaps the decree was merely of a general nature.

21 Actas, XXXVII, 100–101, 124–128, 136(1666).

22 Actas, XL, 81–83, 87, 93–95 (1676–1677); the texts of the decrees are not included; Montero was to receive 100 pesos for expenses.

23 Actas, XL, 206–207 (1678); XLI, 285–287 (1684); the prices for tanned goatskins ranged from 12 to 15 pesos per dozen.

24 Actas, XXX, 288, 332, (1631–1632); XLII, 349(1690); Alemparte, 143.

25 Actas, XXXI, 301–302, 331–336, 338, 340–341, 365–366, 374, 380–381, 399, 415 (1638–1639); XXXII, 34–35, 95, 162–164 (1640–1642); data on Hermúa is in XXVIII, 435–440 (1627); XXX, 211–215, 217–219 (1630); XXXI, 61–64 (1634); Roa y Ursúa, 628, 630–631; Amunátegui Solar, I, 129–181; he was both uncle and father-in-law to the attorney Juan de la Cerda. Viceroy Mancera mentioned the Lima contract in “Relación del … Marqués de Mancera,” Colección de las memorias o relaciones que escribieron los virreyes del Perú, ed. Ricardo Beltrán Rózpide and Angel de Altolaguirre (2 vols.; Madrid: Imprenta del Asilo de Huérfanos, 1921–1930), II, 168–169; see also Moore, 275.

26 Actas, XXXII, 12–13, 33–37, 45 (1640). Data on the Ahumadas is in Roa y Ursúa, 360–361; Medina, Diccionario, 33–35.

27 Actas, XXXII, 95, 99–100, 105, 114–115, 117, 119, 121–123, 134–138, 143–144, 147, 152–153 (1641); Encina, IV, 33. For subsequent mention of the maximum-quota regulations see Actas, XXXII, 214–215, 254, 271, 287–289 (1642–1643).

28 Actas, XXXII, 137–138, 159–160(1641–1642). The alférez, Francisco Eraso, seconded Calderón in the call for a cabildo abierto; the texts of the viceregal and gubernatorial rulings are not included in the Actas.

29 Actas, XXXII, 160–164, 188–191 (1642); Mancera, Memorias, II, 168–169; Moore, 275. The tallow prices ranged downward from 6 ½ pesos depending on delivery date. Meza Villalobos, 143–161, discusses cabildo factionalism.

30 Actas, XXXVI, 368–369, 384–386, 403–411, 420(1664); XXXVII, 40–43, 59(1665); Encina, III, 299–302; IV, 33–35; Barros Arana, V, 48–73, 88, 92, 102–112, 166ff; Korth, 190–192, 214, 218–219; Meza Villalobos, 146–154; Amunátegui Solar, I, 231–270; II, 318–320; Roa y Ursúa, 248–250; Medina, Diccionario, 139–143; Barbier, 421–422; Zapata, Eduardo Pino, “Estampas de la vida chilena durante el gobierno de Don Francisco Meneses,” Boletin de la academia chilena de historia, Yr. 25, no. 58 (1958), 69–88.Google Scholar See also the council sessions on membership in Actas, XXXVI–XXXVII (1664–1667).

31 Actas, XXV, 344–345 (1619); XXXII, 166, 172, 174(1642); XXXIII, 302-303 (1648); XXXIV, 83, 330, 482–483 (1651, 1653-1654); XXXVII, 162–163, 325–327, 335–339, 380 (1667,1669); XLI, passim (1682); XLIII, passim (1696); XLIV, 224, 236–237, 249, 261–262, 265, 281–282 (1699); Encina, IV, 38–39; Vicuña Mackenna, Valparaíso, III, 371–372; Bayle, 319–320; Cruchaga, Manuel, Estudio sobre la organización económica i la hacienda pública de Chile (2 vols.; Santiago: 1878–1880), 1, 237–238;Google Scholar Manuel Josef de Ayala, Diccionario de gobierno y legislación de Indias, Vols. IV, VIII of Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de Ibero-América, ed. Rafael Altamira et al (14 vols.; Madrid: Companía Ibero-Americana; 1927–1932), VIII, 151-152; de Solórzano Pereyra, Juan, Política indiana (5 vols.; Madrid: Companía Ibero-Americana, 1930), 5, 58–60.Google Scholar

32 Actas, XXXI, 396–397, 416–418(1639); XXXII,passim (1640–1643); XXXIII, 193, 243–244, 281, 287–288, 429, 431 (1647–1649); XXXIV, 481–484, 487–490, 506 (1654); XXXV, 15–17, 181–183 (1655–1656); XXXVIII, 287, 290–292 (1674); XLIV, 68–69 (1697); Meza Villalobos, 76, 85–99; Encina, III, 529–533; IV, 200; Medina,Biblioteca, II, 323-326; Lynch, II, 94–101, 164; Barros Arana, IV, 437–442; V, 307–309; Cruchaga, I, 234–235, 239–240, 247–253; Vicuña Mackenna, Valparaíso, III, 343–347, 372–373.

33 Examples are Actos, XXXIV, 29(1650); XLII, 52, 66 (1685); XLIV, 56, 187, 189, 192, 196–197 (1697–1698).

34 Actas, XLII, 388 (1691); see also XXXVII, 127 (1666); XXXVIII, 121,123 (1671); XLI, 65–66 (1681); XLII, 249–250, 262, 374, 384–385, 398–399(1687–1688, 1691); Vicuña Mackenna, Valpariso, III, 155–159, 162.

35 Actas, XXXI, 226–227, 274, 279(1637–1638); Encina, IV, 33; Alemparte, 142, 145.

36 Actas, XLIV, 199–201, 297–298 (1698–1699); compare with XXXVII, 103 (1666). Vicuña Mackenna, Valparaíso, III, 408, coined the phrases. Encina, IV, 242–248, discusses freight costs and the volume of trade. More data on shipping is available in Pérez, Demetrio Ramos, Trigo chileno: navieros del Callao y hacendados limeños entre la crisis agricola del siglo XVII y la primera mitad del XVIII (Madrid: Instituto Fernández de Oviedo, 1967),Google Scholar and Sepúlveda, Sergio, El Trigo chileno en el mercado mundial: ensayo de geografia histórica (Santiago: Editerai Universitaria, 1959), 10–21;Google Scholar both utilize material from Smith, Robert S., “Datos estadísticos sobre el comercio de importación en el Perú en los años de 1698 y 1699,” Revista chilena de historia y geografía, 113 (Jan./June, 1949), 162–177.Google Scholar

37 Actas, XLIII, 78–79, 141–142, 151–152, 155, 177, 231–233, 238–239, 242–243, 246, 254–260, 268, 271–272, 276, 278, 291–292, 298, 301–302, 307, 310–312, 322–323, 339–341, 346–350, 366–367, 369–370, 375–377, 398 (1693–1696); XLIV, 24, 52–53, 58–60 (1697); Ramos Pérez, Minería, 242–249, and Trigo, especially 5–31, 37–53, 131–134; Sepúlveda, 13–21; Barros Arana V, 295–298; Vicuña Mackenna, Valparaíso, III, 397–409, and Santiago, X, 359–367. Encina, IV, 18–26, 218–223, and Alemparte, 117–141, 155–166, have data on this subject and traditional means to provision cities; on the latter point see also Pike, 67–86; Moore, 170–172; Bayle, 453–500.

38 See the sessions in n. 37, especially Actas, XLIII, 246–247, 256, 334 (1695); Barros Arana, V, 296–298; Sepúlveda, 20-21; compare with Ramos Pérez, Trigo, passim, and Alemparte, 139–141.

39 Actas, XLIII, 288–289, 307–308 (1695). On agrarian labor see Ramos Pérez, Trigo, 13–14, 131–132. Authorities on colonial Chilean labor, given minimal notice here to retain the focus on exports, include Rolando Mellafe, Gonzalo Vial Correa, Mario Góngora, and Álvaro Jara. Korth demonstrates the cabildo’s role in maintaining the encomienda and securing royal permission for Indian slavery.

40 Actas, XLIII, 339–341, 346–350 (1696); compare with Ramos Pérez, Trigo, 13, 15–16, 39–40, 43–46; Alemparte, 139–141; Encina, IV, 20.

41 The accusations against the Marqués and Prado are in Actas, XLIII, 76 (1693); the letter is 255–257 (1695); see also ibid., 78–79, 141–142, 151–152, 231–233, 271–272, 366–367, 375–377 (1693–1696); XLIV, 24, 52–53, 58–60(1697); L, 1. See also Alemparte, 139–141; Ramos Pérez, Trigo, 15–18, 38–41, 43–46, 131–132; Sepúlveda, 20–21; Meza Villalobos, 103, 143–161; Amunátegui Solar, I, 183–230.

42 Sepúlveda, 20–21; Ramos Pérez, 18, 39–48, Meza Villalobos, 103, Barbier, 421–422. In regard to policy motivation, the evidence examined generally supports Alemparte but perhaps indicates a stronger profit motive and less concern for social justice in the seventeenth century than he discovered in his broader study. His characterization of the councilmen as both feudal and bourgeois has some merit, but it also creates confusion because of the many connotations these terms carry.

43 Encina, IV, 199–201.

44 Meza Villalobos, 100–142.