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The Church and Business Practices in Late Sixteenth Century Mexico1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Victoria Hennessey Cummins
Victoria Hennessey Cummins*
Affiliation:
Austin College, Sherman, Texas
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Extract

Historians have long been interested in shedding light on the numerous, habitual transactions that constitute economic life at its basic level. Yet, questions about how men transact business as individuals, and how they feel about it are largely unanswered by traditional political and bureaucratic records, perhaps because these activities were so commonplace to the society, so well-known and unremarkable to contemporaries as to obviate remark in the records. A study of the extensive records of the Roman Catholic Church, however, can shed light on this, and many other aspects of Spanish colonial society in Mexico.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 44 , Issue 4 , April 1988 , pp. 421 - 440
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1988

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Footnotes

1

An earlier version of this work, entitled “Let the Buyer Beware: Business Practices in Late Sixteenth Century Mexico,” was presented to the Southwestern Historical Association in 1984.

References

2 In Mexico City, a series of fires and floods, coupled with the passage of time, have destroyed much of the late sixteenth century holdings of the Archivo de Notarías del Distrito Federal.

3 See the numerous publications of Richard E. Greenleaf on the Mexican Inquisition as an excellent example of this work.

4 The main body of papers of the Third Mexican Provincial Council, consisting of four folio volumes, are in the in the Mexican Manuscripts collection (MM 266, 267, 268, and 269) of the Bancroft Library of the University of California, Berkeley

5 For a more detailed discussion of Church councils, see Cummins, Victoria H.,, “After the Spiritual Conquest: Patrimonialism and Politics in the Mexican Church 1573–1586,” (Ph.D Diss., Tulane University, 1979), pp. 285–313.Google Scholar

6 A consulta was a meeting to discuss an important problem, which resulted in tendering recommendations for solutions to the king.

7 “Directorio del Santo Concilio Provincial Mexicano, 1585,” Libros Diversos, Archivo del Cabildo Metropolitano, México, D. F. (hereafter cited as “Directorio”). The archive of the Cathedral is available, on microfilm, from the Genealogical Society of Utah and may be read at any LDS Genealogy Library. For an inventory of the cathedral archive see Schwaller, John Frederick, “The Cathedral Archive of Mexico,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History 62, no. 2, (October, 1985): 229–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 “Directorio,” fols. lv–2v.

9 See, for instance, de Cervantes, Gonzalo Gómez, La vida económica y social de Nueva España al finalizar el siglo XVI, (México, 1944), pp. 101–102 on bread prices.Google Scholar

10 Setting prices for goods was particularly frequent in the first decades after the conquest. Major concern in the last decades of the century centered on grains. See O’Gorman, Edmundo, Guia de las actas de cabildo de la ciudad de México. Siglo XVI, (México, 1970)Google Scholar; Dusenberry, William H., “The Regulation of Meat Supply in Sixteenth Century Mexico City,” HAHR 28 (Feb., 1948): 38–52 Google Scholar; Lee, Raymond L., “Grain Legislation in Colonial Mexico 1575–1585,” HAHR 27 (Nov., 1947): 647–660.Google Scholar

11 “Ordenanza de 3 de Junio de 1579,” Belenéa, Eusebio Ventura, Recopilación sumaria de todos los autos acordados de la real audiencia y sala del crimen de esta Nueva España, y providencias de su superior gobierno, de varias reales cédulas y ordenes que después de publicada la recopilación de Indias han podido recogerse asi de los dirigidas á la misma audiencia ó gobierno, como de algunas otras que por sus notables decisiones convendrá no ignorar, (México, 1981), p. 91.Google Scholar

12 Muñoz, Guillermo Porras, El gobierno de la ciudad de México en el siglo XVI (México, 1982), pp. 125–126 Google Scholar; Actas de cabildo de la ciudad de México, 14 vols. (México, 1899), 8: 362,374–375, 403–404, 619; 11:183–184; 13:207–208. See also Nwasike, Dominic A., “Mexico City Town Government 1590–1650,” (Ph.D. Diss., University of Wisconsin, 1972)Google Scholar, for information on the holdings of the Archivo del Antiguo Ayuntamiento de México of interest to economic and social historians.

13 See for example the minutes of the council meeting of December 22 1592, Actas, 10:52–53, on the shortage of leather, and the meetings of October 7 1596, Actas, 12:307–311, and September 25 1598, Actas, 13: 231–233, on the anticipated rise in wine prices due to the failure of the flota to arrive.

14 Gómez de Cervantes,, pp. 99–101, 118; “Ordenanzas de 20 de Agosto de 1579,” in Ventura Beleña, p. 104; “Ordenanzas y Auto acordado de 31 de Julio 1583,” Ventura Beleña, p. 105.

15 “Directorio,” fols. 127v–128r.

16 Ibid., fol. 129r.

17 “Ordenanzas para el oficio de sastres y jubeteros,” in Vásquez, Genaro, Legislación del trabajo en los siglos XVI,XVII,XVIII, (México, 1938), pp. 84–86.Google Scholar

18 “Directorio,” fol. 130r–v.

19 Ibid., fol. 130r.

20 A cloth shearer shears cloth and removes the nap from its surface. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. Deluxe 2nd edition, s.v. “cloth.”

21 Nap: to smooth or trim cloth by shearing the nap or pile. Ibid, s.v. “nap.”

22 “Directorio,” fol. 128r.

23 Nwasike, pp. 125–126; “Ordenanzas para el oficio de cereros,” Vásquez, , pp. 28–31; “Ordenanzas para el gremio de batihojas,” Ibid., pp. 81–83.

24 “Directorio,” fol. 128r–v.

25 Ibid., fols. 129v–130r; 130v–131r.

26 Ibid., fol. 130v.

27 Meeting of June 29, 1590, Actas, 10:6.

28 Ibid.; Nwasike, pp. 123–129.

29 Super, John C., La vida en Querétaro durante la Colonia 1531–1810 (México,. 1983),p. 109.Google Scholar

30 “Directorio,” fols. 126r–127v.

31 See de Roover, Raymond, The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank 1397–1494, (Cambridge, 1963)Google Scholar, and Ehrenberg, Richard, Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance, trans, by Lucas, A.M., (New York, 1963).Google Scholar

32 Braudel, Fernand, Civilization and Capitalism 15th–18th Century, Vol. 2, The Wheels of Commerce, trans, by Reynolds, Siân, (New York, 1982), p. 560.Google Scholar

33 Braudel, 2:562; de Roover, R., Medici Bank, p. 10.Google Scholar

34 de Roover, R., Medici Bank, pp. 10–11 Google Scholar; Braudel, 2: 562.

35 de Roover, Florence Edler, “Restitution in Renaissance Florence,” in Studi in onore di Armando Sapori, (Milan, 1957), pp. 775, 779.Google Scholar

36 de Roover, F., “Restitution,” pp. 775, 789.Google Scholar

37 de Roover, R., Medici Bank, p. 11 Google Scholar; Braudel 2:562; Ehrenberg, p. 43; de Roover, Raymond, “New Interpretations of the History of Banking,” Cahiers d’histoire mondiale 2, No. 1 (1954–55) pp.48–50 Google Scholar; Kagan, Richard L., Lawsuits and Litigants in Castile 1500–1700, (Chapel Hill, 1981), p. 132.Google Scholar

38 Ehrenberg, pp. 43–44; “Directorio,” fols. 34v–35r.

39 “Directorio,” fols. 34v–35r. For a discussion of the use of censos in Spain, see Kagan, pp. 132–133; Lusitano, Manuel Rodríguez, Explicación de la bula de la santa cruzada, y de las clausulas de los iubileos y consessionarios, que ordinariamente suele c-ceder Su Sanctidad, muy provechosa para predicadores, curas, y confessores, aun en los reynos donde no ay bulla. (Salamanca, 1602)Google Scholar, fols. 215v–247r.

40 “Los casos de este santo concilio,” “Directorio,” fol. 132r.

41 Ibid., fols. 134v–135v.

42 Ibid., fols. 132v–134v.

43 Ibid., fols. 135v–136r.

44 Ibid., fol. 142r–v.

45 Ibid., fols. 138v–139r.

46 Ibid., fols. 137r–138v.

47 Ibid., fol. 139r–v.

48 Ibid., fol. 139v.

49 Bakewell, Peter, Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas 1546–1700, (Cambridge, 1971), p. 210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

50 “Directorio,” fols. 140r; 142v.

51 Ibid., fols. 139v–140r.

52 Ibid., fol. 132r–v. Bakewell states the discount rate for this period at 1 real per peso, See Bakewell, p. 210.

53 Bakewell, pp. 210–212.

54 “Directorio,” fols. 140v–14lr.

55 Ibid., fol. 141r.

56 See the works of Raymond de Roover, Florence Edler de Roover, and Benjamin Nelson, for example.

57 Nelson, Benjamin, “The Usurer and the Merchant Prince: Italian Businessmen and the Ecclesiastical Law of Restitution 1100–1550,” in The Tasks of Economic History; Papers Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association (New York, 1947), pp. 114–117 Google Scholar; de Roover, , “Restitution,” p. 789.Google Scholar

58 Nelson, p. 117.

59 Ibid., pp. 107–110.

60 Ibid., p. 110.

61 For a general discussion of the history of restitution, see Lea, Henry C., A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, 3 vols., (Philadelphia, 1896), 2:59–72.Google Scholar

62 An indulgence granted pardon for all (plenary) or part (partial) of the satisfaction owed in penances in this life or in Purgatory for sins already forgiven. It was necessary for all souls to make satisfaction for sins forgiven before being allowed to enter heaven, according to Catholic doctrine.

63 Rodríguez Lusitano, fol. 8r.

64 For a further discussion of the cruzada in New Spain see Cummins, pp. 232–248.

65 Rodríguez Lusitano, fol. 14r–v.

66 “Instruction y forma que se ha de tener y guardar en la publicación, predicacion, administración, y cobranca de la bula de la santa cruzada, de la tercer predicacion, que se ha de hazer del tercero asiento, en el arcobispado de Mexico” March 20 1602, Special Collections Division, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. Tulane University, New Orleans, LA.

67 Rodríguez Lusitano, fols. 163v–166r.