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MEXICO MAGICO
TRIUMPHS and TRAGEDY... A history of the Mexican people |
CHAPTER IV, The Forefathers (46th part…continues)
MIRACLES OF SILVER
By Prof. German Estrada - December 2005 |
One chance find, the culmination of the hunt for riches which Hernán Cortés began in Vera Cruz, laid the cornerstone for New Spain’s society.
II
Much transpired during the age of silver. Earlier, conquistadores turned encomenderos, evangelical friars, and Indians had performed on center stage; now, miners, hacendados, and merchants did, along with the secular clergy and royal officials. For the elite of New Spain, more and more criollos, these were splendid years. For a while, the colony enjoyed a relatively self-sufficient economy, similar to the incipient capitalistic ones of Europe. New Spain shipped its silver across the Atlantic, which kept the Spanish economy afloat and supplied most of its own needs. That circumstance endured only briefly. On the model of the mother country, New Spain’s economy bogged down in the mire of dependency.
Until 1568, local industry was, relatively speaking, free to call its own tune. Colonial entrepreneurs produced silks, taffeta, and velvet equal in quality with Spanish imports. Others manufactured wool and cotton cloth in quantities sufficient to meet the needs of the entire working population of New Spain and for export to Peru. However, textile barons and merchants in Sevilla persuaded Spanish authorities to bar colonial enterprise, and, consequently, manufacturing in New Spain received a severe setback. Textile manufacturing on a small scale lived on mainly because Spaniards sold premium cloth, made more expensive by import duties. Only the wealthy of New Spain could afford to buy it. Furthermore, because of its European conflicts, Spain failed to supply its colonies, compelling their inhabitants to manufacture their own cloth. Local industry, mostly obrajes, sweatshops making cloth, survived on cheap labor. Guilds controlled price and quality and set aside de jobs of masters for Spaniards and criollos.
Relying on the Casa de Contratación, authorities watched over commerce. Their goal was to aid Spanish merchants, whose goods arrived by way of a fleet sailing annually from Sevilla, carrying wines and perfumes as well as steel, iron tools, hats, and the like for the well off. The royal treasure taxed almost everything sold in New Spain; one tax, the alcabala, grew rapidly over the years. These policies stifled commerce and industry, driving prices up and encouraging colonials, again and again, to buy contraband goods.
Under these conditions, a rickety infrastructure emerged. The Spaniards, unlike their Roman conquerors, built poor roads or none at all, the best of them between Mexico City and Veracruz, and north to the mines of Zacatecas and Guanajuato. During the dry season, when the roads were passable, heavy wagons required from three to four months to travel from Santa Barbara and Parral, mining towns in Chihuahua, to Mexico City. Inns at stopovers served food badly prepared and provided skimpy lodgings. Wharves and warehouses at Veracruz and Acapulco, the principal ports, barely met the needs of ships and sailors. A tiny clique of wealthy men monopolized the capital available for investment.
III
The dramatic decline of its native population also recast the society of New Spain. The death of millions of Indians, as well as the fickleness of mining, shaped the silver age. According to some scholars, of the twenty-five million people who dwelt in central Mexico in 1519, just slightly over one million survived a century later. Even when the original figure is cut in half, as dissenting sages urge, and the number of survivors is doubled, the loss of Indian life is still breathtaking. Not until the mid-seventeenth century did the decline come to an end. No other European conquest had such devastating repercussions. The question is, Why?
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Inside the Mine El Eden in Zacatecas (1548)
worked by Indians and Spaniards
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View from the tram to La Bufa Mine Hill
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In the next issue we’ll continue with Chapter IV of this fascinating book: A NEW SPAIN
Prof. Germán Estrada
E-mail: estradanav@yahoo.com
Source: From the book Triumphs and Tragedy, a History of the Mexican People by his author Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, and with his authorization. (W.W. Norton & Company. New York-London).
Prof. Germán Estrada is the author of the best selling book, México Mágico: Everything You Wanted To Know About... But Nobody Told You..." available in Puerto Vallarta at The Net House, Mail Boxes, Etc., Books, Books as well as directly from his website.
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