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The Labor Revolt of 1766 in the Mining Community of Real Del Monte*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Noblet Barry Danks*
Affiliation:
Denver, Colorado

Extract

Popular disturbances can assume a wide variety of forms which account for the efforts of sociologists, psychologists, and historians to formulate crowd-classification systems. The classification and description of a popular disturbance, however, is not an end in itself, but is useful primarily as a tool to allow the historian to peer more closely at the society suffering conflict. The study of popular disturbances yields historical information on two levels: information about the disturbance itself; and, much more significantly, information about the social, political, and economic relationships evident among sectors of the population at the time of the disturbance. This paper, based principally on archival records only recently brought to light, proposes to examine the mining revolt of August 1766 in Real del Monte of New Spain on these two levels.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1987

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Footnotes

*

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the generous and invaluable assistance given me during the period of research by William B. Taylor.

References

1 See Brinton, Crane, The Anatomy of Revolution (New York: Prentice Hall, 1938);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Canetti, Elias, Crowds and Power, trans. Stewart, Carol (New York: Viking Press, 1962);Google Scholar Katz, Daniel, “The Psychology of the Crowd,” in Fields of Psychology Basic and Applied, pp. 216–37, ed. Guilford, J.P. et al. (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1940);Google Scholar Smelser, Neil J., Theory of Collective Behavior (New York: Free Press, 1962);Google Scholar Tilly, Charles, “The Changing Place of Collective Violence,” in Essays in Theory and History: An Approach to the Social Sciences, ed. Richter, Melvin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), pp. 139–64.Google Scholar

2 See Danks, Noblet Barry, “Revolts of 1766 and 1767 in Mining Communities in New Spain,” Ph.D. Diss., University of Colorado, 1979.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., pp. 131–201. This first level of inquiry is discussed in much greater detail in the dissertation than in the present article.

4 Many contemporary travellers in New Spain made comments on mine labor. The most detailed and reliable views of contemporaries are found in de Ajofrín, Francisco, Diario del viaje que por orden de la sagrada congregación de propoganda fide hizo a la América septentrional en el siglo XVIII, 2 vols. De la Historia, Real Acadamía, no. 12-13 (Madrid: Archivo Documental Español, 1958);Google Scholar de Gamboa, Francisco Xavier, Comentarios a los ordenanzas de minas dedicados al católico rey, nuestro señor D. Carlos III (México: Talleres de “La Ciencia Jurídica”, 1898);Google Scholar de Humboldt, Alejandro, Ensayo político sobre el reino de la Nueva España, 5 vols. (México: Editorial Pedro Robredo, 1941).Google Scholar The definitive modern work on mining in the period relevant to this paper is Brading, D.A., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763–1810, Cambridge Latin American Studies Series, no. 10 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971).Google Scholar Other scholarly commentary on facets of mine labor can be found in Bakewell, Peter J., Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas, 1546–1700, Cambridge Latin American Studies Series, no. 15 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1971);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Brading, D.A., “Grupos étnicos: clases y estructura en Guanajuato (1792),” Historia Mexicana 21 (Enero-Marzo 1972);Google Scholar Brading, D.A., “Mexican Silver Mining in the Eighteenth Century: The Revival of Zacatecas,” Hispanic American Historical Review 50 (November 1970);Google Scholar Howe, Walter, The Mining Guild of New Spain and its Tribunal General, 1770–1821 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949);CrossRefGoogle Scholar Probert, Alan, “Ladders of No Return: The Encino Mine Disaster,” Journal of the West 14 (April 1975);Google Scholar Probert, Alan, “Pedro Romero de Terreros—The Genius of the Vizcaina Vein,” Journal of the West 14 (April, 1975);Google Scholar West, Robert C., The Mining Community in Northern New Spain: The Parral Mining District, Ibero-Americana, no. 30 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949).Google Scholar

5 de Fonseca, Fabián and de Urrutia, Carlos, Historia general de real hacienda, 2 vols. (México: Imprenta de Vicente García Torres, 1849), 1:1–2.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 1:3. For the royal ordinances governing the mining industry, see Recopilación de leyes de los reynos de las Indias, edición facsimilar de la cuarta impresión hecha en Madrid el año 1791, 3 vols. (Madrid: Gráficas Ultra, 1943) and Joaquín Maniau Torquemada, Compendio de la historia de la real hacienda de Nueva Espańa, escrito en el ańo 1794, with notes and commentary by Alberto M. Carreño (México: Sociedad de géografía y éstadística, 1914).

7 Orozco, Luis Chávez, ed., Conflicto de trabajo con los mineros de Real del Monte, año de 1766 (México: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, Instituto Nacional de Estudios Históricos de la Revolución Mexicana, 1960), pp. 104110.Google Scholar The terms peon, faenero, and tenatero are all used to refer to mine cargo laborers, the differentiation among them being slight and sometimes provincial. In Real del Monte the term peon was favored.

8 de Solórzano y Pereyra, Juan, Política indiana (Madrid: Compañía Ibero-Americana de Publicaciones, n.d.),Google Scholar book 2, chapter 15, number 3. Future references to this source will use the short form Solorzano 2–15–3; Gibson, Charles, The Aztecs Under Spanish Rule: A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519–1810 (Stanford: Stanford Unviersity Press, 1964), p. 235.Google Scholar

9 Probert, Alan, “Pedro Romero de Terreros—the Genius of the Vizcaina Vein,” Journal of the W 14 (April 1975):71;Google Scholar Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, p. 39.Google Scholar

10 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, pp. 2335;Google Scholar Brading, “Grupos étnicos,” p. 471.

11 Wolf, Eric R., “The Mexican Bajio in the Eighteenth Century: An Analysis of Cultural Integration,” in Synoptic Studies of Mexican Culture, ed. Edmundson, Munro S. et al, Middle American Institute, no. 17 (New Orleans: Tulane University Press, 1957), p. 186.Google Scholar

12 Borah, Woodrow, New Spain’s Century of Depression, Ibero-Americana series, no. 35 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), pp. 3841.Google Scholar

13 Gibson, Charles, Spain in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 158.Google Scholar

14 Zavala, Silvio and Castelo, María, Fuentes para la historia del trabajo en Nueva España, vol. 8: 1652–1805 (México: Fondo de Cultura Econòmica, n.d.), p. 18.Google Scholar

15 Mine stores, tiendas de raya, were required to offer goods at fair prices. Once a worker accumulated even a small debt, his wages were to be garnished so that the debt was paid off before it became a lifelong and inescapable burden. See Archivo General de la Nación, ramo Minería, volumen 148, folio 392 recto. Future references to documents in this archive will use the short form AGN Minería 148 fol. 392r. The r stands for recto—the front side of the folio page. A v will stand for verso—the reverse side of the folio page.

16 AGN Minería 148 fol. 349v.

17 Brading, Miners, p. 148.

18 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, p. 65.Google Scholar

19 Florescano, Enrique, Precios del maíz y crises agrícolas en México (1708–1810): ensayo sobre el movimiento de los precios y sus consecuencias económicas y sociales (México: El Colegio de México, 1969), p. 143.Google Scholar

20 Gibson, , Aztecs, p. 250.Google Scholar

21 Guthrie, Chester L., “Colonial Economy: Trade, Industry, and Labor in Seventeenth-Century Mexico City,” Revista de Historia de América 7 (Diciembre 1939): 129.Google Scholar

22 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, p. 27.Google Scholar

23 AGN Minería 148 fol. 374r.

24 Bakewell, p. 210.

25 Brading, Miners, p. 149.

26 AGN Minería 148 fol. 372v.

27 AGN Minería 148 fol. 353v.

28 AGN Minería 148 fol. 391r.

29 AGN Criminal 297 expediente 3 folio 264 recto. Future references to this source will use the short form AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 264r.

30 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 1 fol. 25r.

31 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 2 fols. 28–31.

32 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 2 fols. 28–31.

33 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 2 fol. 24v.

34 Ibid.

35 AGN Criminal 303 exp. 1 fols. 6–8.

36 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 2 fols. 24v.-25r.

37 For the history of the efforts of Romero de Terreros and the restoration of the Veta Vizcaína mines see Randall, Robert W., Real del Monte: A British Mining Venture in Mexico, Latin American Monographs, no. 26 (Austin: University of Texas Press, Institute of Latin American Studies, 1972), pp. 810;Google Scholar Probert, “Pedro Romero de Terreros,” passim; and Edith Boorstein Couturier, La Hacienda de Hueyapán, 1550–1936, trans. Carlos E. Guerrero, SepSetentas, no. 310 (Mexico: SepSetentas, 1976), pp. 62–66. Probert and Couturier differ on some of the dates on which events in Romero de Terrero’s life occurred.

38 Randall, p. 16.

39 Humboldt, 3:253.

40 For anecdotes on Romero de Terreros’ immense wealth see De la Barca, Frances Erskine Calderón, Life in Mexico during a Residence of Two Years in that Country (New ed. New York: Dutton, 1931), p. 172;Google Scholar Wilson, Robert Anderson, Mexico and its Religion: With Incidents of Travel in that Country During Parts of the Years 1851–52–53–54, and Historical Notices of Events Connected with Places Visited (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1855), p. 365;Google Scholar Humboldt, 3:253; and De Terreros, Manuel Romero, El Conde de Regla, creso de la Nueva España (México: Ediciones Xóchitl, 1943), p. 119.Google Scholar

41 AGN Minería 148 fols. 332–34.

42 Operario grievances described below are found in the depositions of witnesses and suspected rebels investigated by Francisco Xavier de Gamboa following the revolt. See AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3. Viceroy Bucareli also discussed the operario grievances in letters written to the king in 1771. See Ceballos, Romulo Velasco, ed. La administración de D. Frey Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursua, cuadragesimo-sexto virrey de México, Publicaciones del Archivo General del la Nación, no. 29–30, (México: Talleres Gráficos de la Nación, 1936), 2:359–76.Google Scholar

43 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 333v.

44 Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 35.

45 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 335v.

46 Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 27.

47 Ibid., p. 36.

48 Ibid., p. 27.

49 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 333v.

50 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 335v.; Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 63. The evidence does not indicate when the practice of charging rent for the sacks began.

51 Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 28.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid., p. 37.

54 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 334r.

55 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 334v. Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 61.

56 Chávez Orozco, Conflicto, p. 27.

57 Ibid., p. 232.

58 Ibid., p. 27.

59 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 351.

60 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 328v.

61 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 27lr.

62 For a discussion of rural Mexican rebellion see Taylor, William B., Drinking, Homicide, and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979), pp. 113151.Google Scholar

63 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, pp. 3035.Google Scholar

64 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 340r.

65 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, pp. 3233.Google Scholar

66 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 340r.

67 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 340r-341r: Antolín Espino, María del Pópula, “El Virrey Marqués de Cruillas, (1760–1766),” in Los virreyes de Nueva España en el reinado de Carlos III, pp. 1157, ed. by Calderón Quijano, José Antonio (Seville: Escuela Gráfica Salisiana, 1967) 1:151.Google Scholar

68 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 345v.

69 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 264r.

70 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 346r.

71 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 327r.

72 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 346r, 353v.

73 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 346r.

74 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 263r.

75 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 327–8, 347r.

76 One of the homes stoned was that of Don Marcelo González, administrator of the Mina de San Cayetano, AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 352r. At the time of the stoning Don Marcelo González was in hiding with Don Pedro.

77 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 348r-350v, 341v, 272r.

78 One of these was Don Marcelo González, who joined Don Pedro in the religious procession. AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 262v, 352r. The other was Don Francisco Lira who fled to a Franciscan seminary. AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 352–53.

79 This was Manuel Barbosa of the Mina La Joya. He tried firing two pistols at the crowd; neither discharged. A couple of rebels stabbed him with his own knife and left him dying. AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 268.

80 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 347r.

81 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 266v.

82 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 264–65.

83 Orozco, Luis Chávez, ed., Documentos para la historia económica de México, vol. 3: Los salarios y el trabajo durante el siglo XVIII, legislación y nominas de salarios (México: Publicaciones de la Secretaría de la Economía Nacional, 1934), p. 36.Google Scholar

84 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 351r, 357v.

85 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 358r.

86 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 275v.

87 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 352–53.

88 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 327–28.

89 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 328v.

90 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 341 v.

91 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 272r.

92 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fol. 341v.

93 AGN Criminal 297 exp. 3 fols. 347r, 35 lr, 357v.

94 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 1 fol. 2.

95 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 1 fol. 3r.

96 Obregón, Toribio Esqivel, Biografía de Don Francisco Javier Gamboa: ideario político y jurídico de Nueva España en el siglo XVIII (México: Talleres Gráficos Laguna, 1941), pp. 89.Google Scholar

97 Ibid., p. 221.

98 Ibid., p. 223.

99 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 1 fol. 16r.

100 AGN Criminal 298 exp. 1 fols. 5, 11.

101 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, pp. 225–38, 104–110;Google Scholar Orozco, Chávez, Documentos, pp. 1122.Google Scholar

102 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, pp. 105–6.Google Scholar

103 Ibid., p. 109.

104 Ibid., p. 107.

105 Ibid., p. 108.

106 Orozco, Chávez, Conflicto, p. 233.Google Scholar

107 Ibid., p. 108.

108 Ibid., p. 233.

109 Mercury was essential to the amalgamation process of refining silver ore, thus the price of mercury governed the amount of profit an entrepreneur could make on silver refining.

110 Maniau Torquemada, p. 9.

111 Howe, Walter, The Mining Guild of New Spain and its Tribunal General, 1770–1821 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1949),CrossRefGoogle Scholar passim.

112 Humboldt, 3:298.

113 Ibid., 3:305. In every decade of the eighteenth century except that of the 1760s, the quantity of the silver yield increased.

114 In this sense the revolt of 1766 falls into Charles Tilly’s category of “reactionary disturbance.” See Tilly, Charles, “The Changing Place of Collective Violence,” in Essays in Theory and History: An Approach to the Social Sciences, pp. 139–64, ed. by Richter, Melvin (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970), p. 146.Google Scholar

115 AGN Minería 148 fol. 369r.