Political Power In Ecuador

Osvaldo Hurtado

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000307290
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This book is a study of politics and the changing configuration of power in a developing country in which political domination during the past 155 years has almost without exception coincided with economic hegemony.

Part One
Power Relationships in the Audiencia of Quito: 1533–1820

1
Social, Economic, and Political Organization in the Audiencia of Quito

The Spanish Conquest and the Subjugation of the Indians

In 1533, Sebastián de Benalcázar began the conquest of the territory later incorporated into the Audiencia of Quito with 290 men; he was followed by Diego de Almagro with 30 men and Pedro de Alvarado with 500. In all, approximately 2,000 Spaniards participated in the subjugation of 500,000 Indians in the sixteen years of the conquest of the geographic area that today constitutes Ecuador. By 1549, 20,000 Indian porters had died as a result of the harsh conditions imposed by the invading armies, while many more Indians lost their lives in the wars of conquest, in the subsequent uprisings, and as a consequence of the contagious diseases spread by the Europeans. In some localities, such as Puná, the indigenous population practically disappeared, and in Zamora it was reduced by 90 percent. The Indian was not completely annihilated, however. It is estimated that at the end of the sixteenth century, the indigenous population of the Audiencia of Quito stood at 200,000, in contrast to the white population, which during the same period did not exceed 10,000.¹

The Spanish colonists tended to concentrate in the cities; on the other hand, although a few Indians drifted to the outskirts of the urban areas, the majority continued to reside in the countryside. The problem of extending administrative control over the vanquished Indians dispersed throughout the territory was solved by the establishment of the encomienda system, an institution that likewise served as a means of compensation to participants in the conquest or to individuals contributing horses and money to the war effort.² In the strictest juridical sense, the encomienda consisted of the assignment of a specific number of indigenous inhabitants to a white overseer who was obligated to protect his charges, to provide religious training, and to extend military assistance to the king, in exchange for a tribute that was to be paid in money or in kind. The encomienda implied neither title to the land nor the right to extract labor from the Indian subjects. These grants eventually were extended to every province in the Audiencia of Quito. José María Vargas reports that in 1573 there were eighty-one encomiendas, a number that by 1591 had grown to 156, according to a study by Silvio Zavala.³

In practice, the encomienda did not always adhere to the precise juridical guidelines laid down by the Crown. A royal decree sent to Francisco Pizarro in 1536 specifically prohibited forced labor by encomienda Indians; this prohibition was confirmed in the New Laws issued by Charles I of Spain in 1542, the first legislation of a general nature to prohibit explicitly the enslavement of the Indians and in general all forms of personal servitude. These measures were further ratified in decrees of 1549 and 1601, to the extent that by 1680 the institution of encomienda figured in the Code of the Indies independently of slavery, personal servitude, and forced labor.⁴ In the following years, because of pressure from the defenders of the Indians, the impotency of the metropolis in halting the abuses of the system by encomenderos, and the loss of the tributary function of the encomienda, an effort was made to suppress the institution altogether: in 1701 the king ruled that all encomiendas assigned to individuals not living in the New World would revert to the Crown; in 1703 the Crown assumed direct control over the media anata [a tax paid by ecclesiastical and secular officials on assuming office]; in 1707 it reasserted royal control over lesser encomiendas; finally, on November 23, 1718, the king ordered the reincorporation of all encomiendas, and on July 21, 1720, the institution of encomienda was abolished entirely.⁵

From the above it can be seen that only in the second half of the sixteenth century did the encomienda emerge definitively separated from forced labor. Up to that time, ' labor was juridically subject to the encomendero by means of the so-called encomiendas of "personal service," which developed out of the total or partial substitution of work for tribute payment. This took place in spite of the numerous prohibitions against assigning personal servitude as a part of the "tax. Indeed, the practice came to be so extensively applied that even when the encomienda was abolished in 1720, the king ruled that those encomiendas "that might exist for personal service are not to be affected and shall remain in the state in which they now exist because they are of short term and because of the inconveniences that otherwise might result in the service to God and to Myself."⁶ Friar Pedro de Peña, who occupied the episcopate of Quito in the second half of the sixteenth century, complained that the encomenderos used the Indians for personal service and that, ostensibly to exempt them from payment of tribute, the Indians were forced to work during the greater portion of the year in textile workshops [obrajes], mines, and other similar places.⁷ In the Audiencia of Quito, encomiendas of personal service continued to exist until the eighteenth century, although their numbers were reduced and their presence did not cover the entire territory.⁸

The conquistadors—and later the colonists—also took advantage of other institutions to appropriate Indian labor. Among the founders of Quito, twenty-four citizens "of some social distinction" were assigned, in addition to land, varying numbers of Indians destined for labor.⁹ In this way a practice was initiated that would continue to survive throughout the years under the name of repartimiento de indios [literally, "distribution of Indians"]. According to this institution, the authorities would arrange for the transfer of Indians to the cities so that the colonists might occupy them in agricultural work, in personal service, and in the mines. Regulations stipulated that repartimiento Indians were to receive payment for their services. The mita system, which persisted until 1812, shared with repartimiento similar objectives and manifestations. By means of this institution a fifth of the Indians between the ages of eighteen and fifty were assigned through a process of yearly rotation to work in the mines and, less frequently, in agriculture and other activities, for which they received predetermined wages. By paying a higher wage, colonists who did not otherwise qualify for the benefits of the mita could obtain the labor of these so-called free" Indians.¹⁰ Black slavery was also practiced, principally in the present provinces of Guayas, Imbabura, Loja, and Pichincha.

Land Tenure

Nearly all of the arable land in the geographic area that became the Audiencia of Quito initially belonged to the princes and priests of the Inca Empire. After the defeat of the indigenous armies, these lands became the property of the Catholic Monarchs by right of conquest; other lands, which "were neither cultivated nor utilized for any other purpose," also passed to the Crown.¹¹ These lands came under the control of the conquistadors through the privilege bestowed by the Catholic Kings known as the mercedes reales, which permitted the distribution of lands to combatants as spoils of war and as a reward for economic and military services rendered. The remainder of the lands were reserved expressly for the indigenous population, numerous decrees being issued to guarantee the Indians' rights "to those lands needed for cultivation and for their livelihood."¹² Before receiving a grant, the Spanish petitioner had to prove that the lands claimed belonged to "the Sun or to the Inca" and that they were not possessed by the Indians in usufruct or by property right. In a country whose coastal and Amazon regions constituted an impenetrable and unhealthy jungle, the conquistadors were naturally attracted to the "deep, spacious, and warm" valleys of the highlands, where the land was "fertile, productive, and well populated."¹³ They began to take possession of these lands at the conclusion of the conquest by virtue of decisions handed down by the cabildo ["city council"]. Grant recipients were under obligation to cultivate their lands in order to preserve their title. Through this process, the 204 founders of Quito received city plots for the construction of residences, and many of them received rural grants as well for agricultural and livestock pursuits.¹⁴

Since land was the principal productive resource and the chief source of status, the whites were compelled to seek to expand their holdings. If a person had made a fortune in commerce and wished to belong to the cabildo, he would purchase lands and carry out his business operations through intermediaries.¹⁵ When encomenderos, who were naturally given to ostentation, were ruined economically and were forced to sell their lands, the creoles took advantage of this opportunity to buy the most productive and best suited lands on the assumption that landed property was the wellspring of all power.¹⁶ Since the Indians lacked clear titles to the land they possessed, and since they were not able to cite the document or archive that protected their rights, the whites could petition the Audiencia for legal title, often succeeding on the pretext that the lands sought constituted uncultivated acreage. In other instances whites resorted to violence through mestizo overseers who harassed the Indians until they abandoned the land or else sold it outright "on the uncertain assumption that they were indeed free to dispose of their lands."¹⁷ In addition, the fiscal constraints of the Crown forced it to resort to the practice of composiciones de tierras; thus, Phillip II ruled that any person who demonstrated to the authorities that he was in possession of Crown lands could receive title to the property after paying a fee based on the value of the property and the benefits accruing therefrom to the owner. In this way, the subsistence plots of the Indians, the extensive Indian communal lands, and the Crown lands all quickly disappeared; in their place emerged the large landholdings that were consolidated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the custom of primogeniture [mayorazgo], which prohibited the division by inheritance of the latifundium.

Conquistadors and their descendants, bureaucrats, and colonists who later arrived in the Audiencia of Quito, were not the exclusive owners of real estate; to these must also be added the Church. Through donations, dowries, and purchases, the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the religious orders, and individual clerics came into possession over the years of a significant landed patrimony. The various mechanisms for appropriation of land by the Church included the following: (1) through the device known as the censo ["census-contract"], pious Catholics willed to the parishes or to the orders all or part of their landed property, the rents deriving therefrom being destined for the support of the religious community and for the general advancement of the religious mission; (2) land was received by the Church in the form of donations by those entering the convent; (3) since the Church performed an important money-lending function, it possessed the liquid capital necessary to secure through purchase sizable portions of the best haciendas; (4) last, as pointed out by Jorge Juan and Antonio Ulloa, the clerics, in order to live outside the convents, requested a parish assignment or else bought through private means an hacienda,"¹⁸ a measure resorted to by many priests to free themselves from monastic discipline.

Numerous decrees were issued to curtail the acquisition of land by the Church. One decree, dispatched to the Audiencia of Quito in 1539, prohibited the religious institution from acquiring any additional income and property, given the fact that "from Pasto to Loja it had gained control in less than two years of more than half of the haciendas. ¹⁹ But, ultimately, all prohibitions were to no avail. González Suárez indicates that in the eighteenth century "the majority of the best lands belonged to the religious communities, primarily to the Society of Jesus," which owned seventy-seven haciendas with a total territorial extension of eighty square leagues [440 square kilometers]; private farms, on the other hand, were "small in comparison with those of the religious communities, and secular property holders were few in number."²⁰ In the Historia de la Compañía de Jesús, the most comprehensive study to date on the Jesuits in the Province of Quito, it is affirmed that at the time of its expulsion, this order possessed sixty-three haciendas and exercised administrative authority over several more.²¹ Information does not exist on the extent of the holdings of the other religious orders, the hierarchy, and the clerics; but it is known that Church lands in general covered whole valleys, such as those of Chota, Cayambe, and Pomasqui. In addition to extensive landholdings, the patrimony of the Church in the Audiencia also included far-reaching interests in obrajes [Indian-operated textile sweatshops installed on haciendas], commerce, and finance.

The Economy and Labor

Once the conquerors had appropriated for themselves the precious metals accumulated in the hands of the Indians, the Spanish authorities initiated in earnest the exploitation of the gold and silver mines of the region. Most mining activity was carried out in the placers, the most important being those of Santa Bárbara, near Gualaceo in the present province of Azuay, and those of Logroño, Zamora, Sevilla de Oro, and Bracamoros on the southwest slopes of the Andes. Two deposits were especially important: one in Zaruma and the other in Macuche, in the provinces of El Oro and Cotopaxi, respectively. In contrast to the situation in other colonial regions, mineral deposits never acquired overwhelming importance in the economy of the Audiencia of Quito. In 1544 the cabildo requested a return to the custom of "stamping the gold without assaying it, given the poverty of the soil in the mines."²² A report in 1573 noted that the placers of Santa Bárbara and Zamora had been exhausted; a similar report was made in 1692 with respect to the Zaruma mine. Jorge Juan and Antonio Ulloa, who visited Quito in 1737, affirmed that "of all the silver and gold mines in the Province of Quito, work is continuing normally only in Barbacoas and partially in Zaruma, the rest of the mines having been abandoned."²³

What was reported to be the second textile factory on the continent was established in San Miguel de Chimbo during the early years of the Audiencia.²⁴ Textiles flourished in the region thanks to an abundance of raw materials, low labor costs, and the inability of Peninsular industry to satisfy American demands. According to Phelan, in 1681 there were 201 obrajes employing 28,000 workers, an average of 140 workers per obraje. The cloths produced by these "factories"—located primarily in the environs of Quito, Riobamba, and León—were exported to the Viceroyalties of Nueva Granada, Peru, and La Plata, and even to the distant Captaincy General of Chile. The importance achieved by this industry can be appreciated from the following statistics: in 1585 there were 750,000 sheep in the provinces of Pichincha, Chimborazo, and Cotopaxi,²⁵ a figure equivalent to 42 percent of the entire sheep population of Ecuador in 1968, according to the Agriculture and Livestock Census of that year. Other industrial activities included the manufacture of gunpowder in Latacunga and shipbuilding in Guayaquil, the principal shipyard on the Pacific Coast of South America.²⁶

Agriculture also played an important economic role in the colony, especially during the eighteenth century. Fertile highland pastures were devoted to livestock raising, principally sheep, and to the cultivation of cereals and other crops essential to the indigenous diet and, with time, to that of the white population as well. Cascarilla bark [Croton eluteria], used for making incense, was an important money crop harvested in the southern regions of the Audiencia. The soils of the Coast were not extensively cultivated except in the Guayas Basin where the river network provided an indispensable means of communication. The most important tropical crops were tobacco, produced along the banks of the Daule River, and cacao, found in the areas of Guayaquil, Babahoyo, and Machala. Both of these commodities experienced considerable development during the last decades of the colonial period. Lumber, sugarcane, coffee, and other tropical products were also exploited in this region. Generally, the economy of the Audiencia of Quito underwent a shift from mining activities during the sixteenth century to agricultural and pastoral pursuits during the following two centuries.²⁷ According to González Suárez, by the eighteenth century, agriculture was the only economic activity of consequence in the colony.²⁸

Commerce in the Audiencia was reduced almost entirely to import-export activities. Since the majority of the population was self-sufficient in food products, internal commerce was limited éssentially to trade in regional agricultural products and the exchange of textiles produced locally for use by Indians and mestizos. Creoles bought goods imported from Europe or Asia; locally manufactured i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Translator's Foreword to the Encore Edition
• Translator's Foreword to the First Edition
• Preface to the Encore Edition
• Introduction
• PART ONE POWER RELATIONSHIPS IN THE AUDIENCIA OF QUITO: 1533-1820
• PART TWO THE STRUCTURE OF POWER IN ECUADOR DURING THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD: 1820-1949
• PART THREE THE CRISIS OF POWER IN CONTEMPORARY ECUADOR: 1950-1979
• EPILOGUE
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• SUPPLEMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX