Historia y Sociedad (Jul 2018)
The Indigenous Textiles in the Colonial Period. Taxation, Trade and Exchange of Cotton Mantas in the Central Andes of the New Kingdom of Granada, XVI and XVII Centuries
Abstract
This article analyses the continuity and importance of the textiles of pre-Hispanic origin in the economic colonial order of the Central Andes of the New Kingdom of Granada during the XVI and XVII centuries. Through the study of the official documentation that accounts for the link of cotton mantas to the colonial tax system, the trade and the exchange values are examined. First, we analyse hints of the volume of mantas delivered by the indigenous groups as a tribute in species, which allows us to observe the flexibility of the fiscal system characterized by the negotiation, the non-fulfillment of the official rates and the protection of the interests of the different actors involved. Second, we establish who were some of the final consumers of the product and what conditions surrounded the trade and transportation of the textiles. Finally, we show the types of exchanges that involved the cotton mantas, and the values these acquired in the local and regional markets. These three thematic axes show the active and relevant presence of the indigenous textile manufacturing in the local, provincial and inter-provincial context, as well as the network of political, economic and commercial relations that stimulated this productive activity during this colonial period.
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