Trading Roles: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Urban Economy in Colonial Potosí

212 Pages·2005·1.692 MB·English

by  Jane E. Mangan

(cid:2) (cid:2)
a o
T DING LES
Abookintheseries
latin america otherwise:
languages, empires, nations
Serieseditors:
WalterD.Mignolo,DukeUniversity
IreneSilverblatt,DukeUniversity
SoniaSaldívar-Hull,UniversityofTexasatSanAntonio
(cid:2) (cid:2)
a o
T DING LES
Gender, Ethnicity, and the Urban Economy in
jane e. mangan
Colonial Potosí
duke university press
DurhamandLondon2005
©2005DukeUniversityPress
Allrightsreserved
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper(cid:5)
TypesetinCarterandConeGalliard
byTsengInformationSystems,Inc.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
appearonthelastprintedpageofthisbook.
Tomydarlings,NicholasandCaroline

ABOUT THE SERIES
Latin America Otherwise: Languages, Empires, Nations is a critical series.
Itaimstoexploretheemergenceandconsequencesofconceptsusedto
define‘‘LatinAmerica’’whileatthesametimeexploringthebroadinter-
playofpolitical,economic,andculturalpracticesthathaveshapedLatin
Americanworlds.LatinAmerica,atthecrossroadsofcompetingimperial
designsandlocalresponses,hasbeenconstruedasageoculturalandgeo-
politicalentitysincethenineteenthcentury.Thisseriesprovidesastart-
ing point to redefine Latin America as a configuration of political, lin-
guistic,cultural,andeconomicintersectionsthatdemandsacontinuous
reappraisal of the role of the Americas in history, and of the ongoing
process of globalization and the relocation of people and cultures that
havecharacterizedLatinAmerica’sexperience.LatinAmericaOtherwise:
Languages,Empires,Nationsisaforumthatconfrontsestablishedgeocul-
turalconstructions,thatrethinksareastudiesanddisciplinaryboundaries,
that assesses convictions of the academyand of public policy, and that,
correspondingly,demandsthatthepracticesthroughwhichweproduce
knowledgeandunderstandingaboutandfromLatinAmericabesubject
torigorousandcriticalscrutiny.
We know much about Potosí’s silver mines and their role in sustain-
ingSpanishcolonialism.Weknowsurprisinglylittle,however,aboutthe
socialmatrixofproduction,trade,andconsumptiongeneratedbyseven-
teenth-century mining; we know little, in other words, about the quo-
tidian practices of early capitalism in the Americas. Jane Mangan’s ex-
traordinarystudyprovidesuswiththeethnographicvisionwehavelong
needed.
Spaniards,Indians,andBlacks,nolongerproducingtheirownsubsis-
tence,wereforcedtoenterPotosí’sexpandingmarketeconomy.Mangan
highlightstheparticipationofwomen—especiallywomenofindigenous
descent—as well as the activities of other non-elites in this process. By
focusing on the gendered and racial dimensions of economic practices,
Mangan analyzes how mercantilism became a vehicle for the formation
of social identities. By analytically divorcing the economy from its so-
cial fabric, her book makes us seewhat has been lost. Trading Roles is a
fine-grainedhistoryofthesocialrelationsforgingearlycapitalismandthe
modernworld,relationsthatwouldirrevocablyaffectthelivesofpeoples
intheAndesandthroughouttheglobe.
CONTENTS
AbouttheSeries vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 ‘‘TheLargestPopulationandtheMostCommerce’’:
TheGenesisofPotosí’sUrbanEconomy 21
2 MakingRoomtoSell:
Location,Regulation,andthePropertiesofUrbanTrade 48
3 LightontheChicha,HeavyontheBread:
TheColonialMarketforBrewingandBaking 76
4 TheWorldofCreditintheCityofSilver 106
5 EnterprisingWomen:
FemaleTradersintheUrbanEconomy 134
6 ¿ValeunPotosí?
TheUrbanMarketplaceintheFaceofDecline,1650–1700 161
Conclusions 178
Appendix 191
Notes 197
Glossary 251
Bibliography 255
Index 267