Colonial Landholding Elite Arequipa Peru

¶ … Landowners in Colonial Peru by the author Keith Davies.

Landowners in Colonial Peru

In this book, Keith A. Davies writes about the families of Arequipa, that the Spaniards founded in 1540 in Southwestern Peru. These families belonging to the middle and upper class status acquired land and used its proceeds to attract prominent spouses, that way they could acquire prestigious political and military posts and also enhance their standing in the society by being benefactors of the Church.

Study of the colonial period has been a favorite amongst the educationist and the students in the United States. It is quite intriguing to discover that at a time when most people are just studying the colonial rule in the European history, others are turning their attention to the period of the colonial rule in Peru.

Peru has been able to attract a lot of attention from authors especially because of the landholding class during the colonial period. One of the literary contributions has been made by the renowned author Keith Davies in his book called the Landowners in Colonial Peru, in which he analyses the economic and fiscal history of Peru.

However, the author draws attention to the people of Ariquipa and how they invested in agricultural lands so they could become a symbol of status in the society. Historically, the work contributed by Keith and other writers' form the economic, social and fiscal themes of these noteworthy books.

Geographically, the region of Peru that is written about in the book is different from the areas in the southern, northern and central regions as far as topography is concerned.

The plot of this book focuses on the period starting from the early 1700's till the late 1700's. However, after reading this book one feels that if it had been written around the eighteenth century it would have attracted greater attention since the inauguration of the general was responsible for many of the changes.

The book starts off by throwing light on the main aspects of the socioeconomic structure of the city and the region of Arequipa. The book dedicates a chapter each to different socioeconomic aspects of the city like, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, commerce, and how the social aspects have been affected by these factors, especially benefiting the church. Somehow, all the chapters are related to the themes in the book, which are notably fiscal, economic and political. The last chapter is an insight as to how the fiscal, political, and social reforms caused the rebellion that took place in the 1780's, which according to commentators were in the form of riots and protests. They were largely caused by the increased dissatisfaction due to the Areche's fiscal innovations.

The book fails to make a powerful ending by focusing on the aftermath of the 1780's protests. It should have thrown light on the relationship between the reforms and the attitude of arequipenes that led to the struggle for independence nearly three decades later.

Although, the city was mainly populated with people from Europe, Cuzco largely dominated the city politically, economically and socially. They were mainly dependent on the agricultural lands as a means for making their living.

There are some contradictory parts in the book. There is a part which draws an impression that the residents of the region are basically not given much attention by the ruling politicians, do not have to pay many taxes and are self-sufficient with the agricultural lands they have. Though, on the other hand, the elite of the region made their income from these lands, by manufacturing brandy before the reforms implemented. This is how they prospered economically and also invited attention towards investment in their local economy.

During the mid-1700's, there was a drop in the economic gains that did manage to recover during the 1780's. The profitability of the heredades was on a downfall because now they were facing tough competition from other regions in Peru. The landowners found themselves in a bad economic state when the local merchants began to produce wine themselves. The fact is that there was a decline in the income of the landowners but they were able to make both ends meet. Landowners did not choose to divide their land between the multiple owners because that would just decrease the size of the land. With the growing economic problems, the landowners found it difficult to marry their children into equally rich landowning families or other wealthy families.

However, towards the end of 1780's, there were sharp economic gains with almost 300% higher return in treasury receipts in comparison to the 1770's. The drastic improvement in the economy invited immigration from the peninsular regions. This is also one of the reasons that the Spanish were able to settle all over America.