An Abolitionism Born of Frustration
The Conde de Lemos and the Potosí Mita, 1667-73
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2835539 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeffrey A Cole (0000-0002-3485-6056, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 307 |
| Publication date | 1983-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Hispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2514711 |
| OpenAlex | W4250257819 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
O N July 4, 1670, the Viceroy Conde de Lemos wrote to his sovereign, Queen Mariana, to propose nothing less than the abolition of the Potosi mita.' His decision to destroy the institution that many of his contemporaries considered the very foundation of the royal treasury in Peru came after three exhausting years of effort on his part to reform the system. The origins of Lemos's proposal and its fate once it had been dispatched to Madrid reflect the changes that had taken place in the mita since its inception, the power and influence of the miners' guild at Potosi, and the difficulties that plagued the Hapsburg administration of Upper Peru. When he arrived in Lima in November 1667, the Conde de Lemos inherited the responsibility for administering a mita that barely resembled the draft labor regimen inaugurated by Viceroy Francisco de Toledo nearly a century earlier. Toledo had required that one-seventh of the adult male Indian population of sixteen altiplano provinces serve as common laborers in the mines and silver mills of Potosi each year, on a rotating basis. Of the nearly 90,000 male Indians between the ages of 18 and 50 found by his population count, Toledo required that 13,500 travel to Potosi from their home villages (in which they had been placed under an extensive resettlement program conducted by the same viceroy) and once there to work in three shifts of 4,500 each. An Indian was thus to work one week and have the following two to rest, to serve as a minga (voluntary laborer), or to engage in personal enterprise. Natives who lived in provinces on the frontier with unconquered Indians or in cities (which
Abolitionism · Art · Frustration · Humanities · Political science · Cuban History and Society · Historical Studies in Latin America · History and Politics in Latin America · Latin American history and culture · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,24 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2023 (36) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |