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

Appendix G: Tributes and Tributaries in the Quer

Appendix G Tributes and Tributaries in the Querétaro District, 1807 Even as tributes became a head tax that funded local schools and otherwise sent funds to the general treasury, and as levies on full tributaries (married male heads of household) and half-tributaries (unmarried men and widowers) were equalized at 1.5 reales each, the tributary list (matrícula) completed for the Querétaro district in 1807 distinguished full payers from halves. It also listed tributaries by residence and employment, distinguishing residents of pueblos and barrios from those working in large obrajes and tanneries, those employed in small shops, and those at estates (and sometimes separating employed residents from tenants and informal residents). The resulting count allows analysis of men classified as indios by residence and employment, distinguishing the roles of married and single men—the latter mostly youths yet to establish households. That the count came in 1807, the last year before the combination of political crisis and drought that led to the insurgency of 1810, makes the results all the more informative. The count covers the full tribute district of Querétaro: the city and its environs as well as regions south around San Juan de Río and east toward Tolimán and the edges of the Sierra Gorda. It does not include the Cadereyta district, more fully of the Sierra. I present the results in tables that distinguish the city of Querétaro, its near countryside, the San Juan region, and the Tolimán area. Within each I separate town, village, and barrio residents from those linked to workshops and estates. The results are revealing: urban workshops, large and small, had become places of unmarried youths; rural estates were worked by married men and a few youths; only towns and villages mixed both in balance. Among indios in the Spanish city the concentration of youths in workshops emerges clearly. In the city’s Espíritu Santo parish youths were a majority of indio workers in three large obrajes. 610 appendix g TaBle g.1 Tributaries in the Parish of Santiago de Querétaro, 1807 Place of Work or Residence Full Tributaries Half Tributaries Total Tributaries Percentage of Halves City and Barrios (3) 295 84 379 22 Obrajes (6) 184 125 309 40 Trapiches (4) 28 22 50 44 Hacienda and Tenería de Carretas 80 20 100 20 parish ToTal 587 251 838 30 Source: Jiménez Gómez, ed., La República de Indios de Querétaro, no. 121, 711–34, my calculations. TaBle g.2 Tributaries in the Parish of Santa Ana, 1807 Place of Work or Residence Full Tributaries Half Tributaries Total Tributaries Percentage of Halves City and Barrio (2) 168 85 253 34 Obrajes (6) and Tenerías (1) 127 91 218 42 parish ToTal 295 176 471 37 Source: Jiménez Gómez, ed., La República de Indios de Querétaro, no. 121, 711–34, my calculations. TaBle g.3 Tributaries in the Parish of Espíritu Santo, 1807 Place of Work or Residence Full Tributaries Half Tributaries Total Tributaries Percentage of Halves City and Barrio (2) 104 29 133 22 Obrajes (3) 63 98 161 61 parish ToTal 167 127 294 43 Source: Jiménez Gómez, ed., La República de Indios de Querétaro, no. 121, 711–34, my calculations. TaBle g.4 Tributaries in the Parish of Divina Pastora, 1807 Place of Work or Residence Full Tributaries Half Tributaries Total Tributaries Percentage of Halves City (1) 175 64 239 27 Obraje (1) 25 10 35 29 Trapiches (29) 77 68 145 47 parish ToTal 277 142 419 34 Source: Jiménez Gómez, ed., La República de Indios de Querétaro, no. 121, 711–34, my calculations. TriBuTe and TriBuTaries 611 In the city parish with the greatest concentration of small workshops, Divina Pastora, the employment of youths was again clearly concentrated. A table combining the tributaries for the four city parishes is most revealing. Among over two thousand indio tributaries in the Spanish city, the concentration of unmarried youths in the obrajes and smaller workshops is notable. Urban labor was becoming work for men without families to sustain. The parish of San Sebastián, the indigenous community set in the huertas on the north back of the river, was different. There youths were becoming scarce in 1807, suggesting that many had crossed the river to work in city workshops, large and...