Making a New World: Founding Capitalism in the Bajío and Spanish North America

Appendix D: Eighteenth-Century Economic Indicators: Mining and Taxed Commerce

Appendix D Eighteenth-Century Economic Indicators: Mining and Taxed Commerce Silver Production: Guanajuato and New Spain, 1691–1810 Mining drove the economies of the Bajío, New Spain, the Atlantic, and the world during the eighteenth century. Mining output, overwhelmingly of silver and secondarily of gold, is the best-documented economic activity of eighteenth-century New Spain, thanks to the regime’s interest in promoting and taxing its primary source of revenue. Figures for all of New Spain are available for 1691 to 1810. Figures for Guanajuato exist for 1716 to 1800—plus a few reports for the first decade of the nineteenth century. To follow longterm trends I calculate five-year means for both sets of indicators to trace the growth of mining across New Spain after 1690 and the role of Guanajuato in that growth after 1715. Most notable is long-term growth across New Spain and at Guanajuato. Guanajuato ’s expansion began slowly, hovering around 15 percent of New Spain’s production to 1725. It accelerated to between 25 and 30 percent through the 1740s. Then Guanajuato faced a decline that held for two decades, contributing to a plateau in production across New Spain. From the 1770s both experienced boom; Guanajuato’s share approached 25 percent of historically high levels—until the crisis and insurgency of 1810. There is no sign of an industry on the verge of collapse before 1810. Brading ’s analysis of Valenciana reveals rising costs, mostly labor for ever deeper excavations and drainage, pressing against thinning profits in the early 1800s. Such pressures were, however, a standard part of the mining cycle: early excavations with few profits; if fortunate, a time of boom production and great 550 appendix d profits; then an era of lesser ores, deeper shafts, rising costs, and falling profits. After 1800 Valenciana was approaching the end of such a cycle. Whether its difficulties portended industry collapse or just another bonanza going bust is ultimately unknowable. What is clear is that mining at Guanajuato and across New Spain collapsed after 1810 because of the combination of regime crisis, civil war, and popular insurgencies. What might have happened without those conflicts can only be imagined TaBle d.1 Silver Production, New Spain and Guanajuato, 1691–1810 (Five-Year Means, in Pesos) New Spain Guanajuato Guanajuato as Percentage of Total 1691–95 4,482,128 1696–1700 3,570,848 1701–5 5,138,460 1706–10 5,913,881 1711–15 6,281,424 1716–20 7,117,022 1,173,572 16 1721–25 8,326,930 1,228,561 15 1726–30 8,877,724 1,852,570 21 1731–35 8,922,145 1,964,248 22 1736–40 9,845,385 2,161,670 22 1741–45 9,925,010 2,835,410 29 1746–50 12,459,617 3,215,834 26 1751–55 12,777,106 2,422,930 19 1756–60 12,814,206 2,248,779 18 1761–65 11,713,842 2,361,837 20 1766–70 12,626,630 2,658,575 21 1771–75 16,235,937 3,356,735 21 1776–80 19,303,964 4,946,962 26 1781–85 20,249,114 4,374,763 22 1786–90 18,541,481 4,505,469 24 1791–95 23,246,840 5,231,388 23 1796–1800 23,093,612 5,042,503 22 1801–5 22,559,968 1806–10 22,771,278 1801–3 19,519,315 4,662,037 24 1809 26,172,982 5,220,000 20 Source: For New Spain, Lerdo de Tejada, Comercio exterior de México desde la conquista hasta hoy, table 54; for Guanajuato, Morín, Michoacán en la Nueva España del siglo XVIII, 94; my calculations of means and percentages. eighTeenTh-CenTury eConomiC indiCaTors 551 Taxed Commerce in the Bajío, 1781–1811 Calculating activity in the commercial economy during the eighteenth century is uncertain. Thanks to regionally specific collection reports for the alcabala, a tax on commercial sales, it is possible to estimate the direction, if not the size, of commercial production in the Bajío and its subregions during the decades before 1810. Before 1776 alcabalas were farmed to independent collectors . Regime receipts reflected the value of farm contracts; relationships with real economic activity remain difficult to discern. After that date, as part of reforms aimed to tighten state power and increase revenue...