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The Obraje in the Late Méxican Colony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Richard E. Greenleaf
Richard E. Greenleaf*
Affiliation:
University of The Americas, México, D. F.
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Extract

One of the most important native industries in New Spain, allowed to flourish because of its rational necessity, and given exemptions from restrictive mercantile prohibitions was the obraje, or colonial textile factory. This institution had its origins in the tribute and labor policies of the quasi-feudal economic system imposed by the Spaniard in the decades after the conquests in the Caribbean and on the American mainland. For almost three hundred years clerics and humanitarians protested, viceroys raged, monarchs threatened, a plethora of regulations was issued, inspections were conducted, trials held, fines levied, obrajes were closed, and yet the obraje as an institution survived, and the inhuman conditions of the worker remained unchanged. While the Mexican encomienda system was being shorn of its abuses and gradually deemphasized by the crown, and while the repartimiento system of forced labor for wages was subordinated to a policy of conservation of human resources in the face of a shortage of Indian labor, the Mexican colony was becoming each decade more dependent on the locally-produced textiles, especially the commercial, non-luxury fabrics in everyday use. These were produced in the obrajes.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , January 1967 , pp. 227 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1967

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References

1 The economic history of the obraje has been unjustly neglected by historians of colonial Mexico. Two Master of Arts theses with which the author has been concerned do a great deal to set guidelines for some of the treatment in this essay: Brazil, Bias, “A History of the Obrajes in New Spain, 1535–1630,” (unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of History, University of New Mexico, 1962)Google Scholar and Pratt, Francis E., “The Obraje in New Spain: A Case Study in the Failure of Royal Authority to Impose its Will,” (unpublished Master’s thesis, Department of History, University of the Americas, 1965)Google Scholar. Stampa, Manuel Carrera, “El Obraje Novohispano,” Memorias de la Academia Mexicana de la Historia, XX (abril-junio, 1961), 148–171 Google Scholar has done the most important primary analysis of the obraje but his coverage is general and relies upon printed documentary sources. Orozco, Luis Chávez in his El Obraje, Embrión de la Fábrica (México, 1936)Google Scholar, reproduces nine documents spread over the period 1549–1805 to illustrate a particular view. Obraje materials, primarily of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Zavala, Silvio and Castelo, María, Fuentes para la Historia del Trabajo en Nueva España (8 vols.; México, 1939-1946)Google Scholar, and in Zavála, Silvio, Ordenanzas del Trabajo, Siglos XVI y XVII (México, 1947)Google Scholar provide printed documentation for what we know of the obraje. The first two centuries of the institution may be surveyed from these sources; the Bourbon century may not. Francis E. Pratt merits a note of appreciation and an acknowledgement of indebtedness because as my research assistant he helped with the extracting of archival materials and the writing of this article.

2 For parallel labor institutions that developed at the same time as the obraje see Simpson, Lesley B., The Encomienda in New Spain (Berkeley, 1950)Google Scholar; Zavála, Silvio, La Encomienda Indiana (Madrid, 1935)Google Scholar; Simpson, Lesley B., The Repartimiento System of Native Labor in New Spain and Guatemala (Berkeley, 1938).Google Scholar

3 Humboldt, Alejandro de, Ensayo Político sobre el Reino de la Nueva España (2d ed.; México: Editorial Pedro Robredo, 1941), IV, 14.Google Scholar

4 See Morfi, Agustín, Viaje de Indios y Diario del Nuevo México, (México, 1935), 36 Google Scholar; Scholes, France V. and Adams, Eleanor, Advertimientos Generales que los Virreyes dejaron a sus Sucesores para el Gobierno de Nueva España 1590–1604 (México, 1956), 32–33, 51–52, 75–76Google Scholar, Zurita, Alonso de, The Lords of New Spain (Trans. Benjamin Keen; London, 1963), 213–214 Google Scholar, and many other accounts.

5 Juan, Jorge and Ulloa, Antonio de, Noticias Secretas de América (Buenos Aires, 1953), 187–188, 208–228Google Scholar; Moses, Bernard, Spain’s Declining power in America 1730–1806 (Berkeley, 1919), 180.Google Scholar

6 Morison, Samuel E., Admiral of the Ocean Sea, A Life of Christopher Columbus (Boston, 1944), 491.Google Scholar

7 Peterson, Frederick A., Ancient Mexico, An Introduction to the Pre-Hispanic Cultures (London, 1959), 171–172 Google Scholar, citing Códice Mendocino and the Matrícula de Tributos. See also the important work of Mendizabal, Miguel Otón de, “Las Artes Textiles y la Industria Textil Mexicana,” Obras Completas (6 tomos; México, 1947), VI, 259–497Google Scholar for the Pre-Hispanic epoch and the colonial tribute in cloth.

8 Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 6.

9 Borah, Woodrow, Silk Raising in Colonial Mexico (Berkeley, 1943).Google Scholar

10 Dusenberry, William M., “Woolen Manufacture in Sixteenth Century Mexico,” The Americas, IV (1948), 223–233 Google Scholar. See also Dusenberry’s, The Mexican Mesta: The Administration of Ranching in Colonial Mexico (Urbana, 1963).Google Scholar

11 Miranda, José, El Tributo Indígena en la Nueva España durante el Siglo XVI (México, 1952), 23–36.Google Scholar

12 AGI, Contaduría 657, exp. 4.

13 Puga, Vasco de, Provisiones, Cédulas, Instrucciones para el Gobierno de la Nueva España (Madrid, 1945), 173–174 Google Scholar. See also Miranda, El Tributo, 103 ff.

14 Miranda, El Tributo, 260.

15 Ibid., 134.

16 Chavez Orozco, El Obraje, 17, reproduces the cédula of October 9, 1549 from Valladolid, “Que los encomenderos no obliguen a las indias a encerrarse en corrales a hilar y tejer la ropa de algodón que han de pagar como tributo, sino que lo hagan libremente en su casa.”

17 IV, Don Felipe, “Que los encomenderos no tengan obrajes en sus encomiendas, ni cerca de ellas,” 28 de mayo de 1621, Recopilación de Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias (Madrid, 1681), Lib. VI, Tit. IX, Ley 18.Google Scholar

18 “Obrajes e ingenios, que se enforme los que hay en este Reino y con qué licencia están fundados, demoliéndos los que no la hubieren obtenido,” Madrid, 22 de febrero de 1680, Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 46–49.

19 In addition to Simpson, The Repartimiento, see the very informative work by Steele, Arthur, “The Repartimiento System of Native Labor in Colonial Spanish America 1549–1601,” (Unpublished Master’s thesis; Department of History, University of New Mexico, 1949).Google Scholar

20 Recopilación, Lib. VI, Tit. XXVI, Ley 2.

21 Recopilación, Lib. IV, Tit. XXVI, Ley 3. The corpus juris on Castillian obrajes is found in Antonio Javier Pérez de López, Teatro de la Legislación Universal de España e Indias (28 tomos; Madrid, 1791–1798), XXI, 203–233.Google Scholar

22 See Lorenzot, Francisco del Barrio, Ordenanzas de Gremios de la Nueva España (México, 1920), 53–74 Google Scholar, and the treatment of Woodrow Borah, Silk Raising, 73–75 for the problem of fraudulent practice and shorting.

23 Simpson, The Repartimiento, 77.

24 Simpson, The Repartimiento, 77.

25 AGN, Reales Cédulas Duplicadas CIII, 43–45v, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 139, 146.

26 AGN, Ordenanzas IV, 90–98, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 157–168.

27 AGN, Ordenanzas IV, 98-100v, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 168–171.

28 See Recopilación, Lib. VI, Tit. XIII, Ley 8; AGN, Ordenanzas II, 129, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 181–182.

29 Real Cédula sobre repartimientos de indios,” Aranjuez, 26 de mayo de 1609,” reproduced in Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 31–42.

30 AGN, Ordenanzas II, 131–135, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 182–189.

31 See Aranjuez cédula, supra, n. 29.

32 Recopilación, Lib. IV, Tit. XXVI, Ley 2.

33 Recopilación, Lib. IV, Tit. XXVI, Ley 1.

34 AGN, Ordenanzas II, 313–316, reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 195–199.

35 “Obrajes e ingenios, que se informe los que hay en este Reino y que con licencia están fundados, demoliéndose los que no la hubieran obtenido,” Madrid, 22 de febrero de 1680, reproduced in Chavez Orozco, El Obraje, 46–49. See supra, n. 18.

36 Torquemada, Juan de, Monarquía Indiana (3 tomos; 1943–1944), I, 611Google Scholar; Troncoso, Francisco del Paso y, ed., Papeles de la Nueva España (9 tomos; Madrid y México, 1905–1948), VI, 56Google Scholar; Aiton, Arthur S., Antonio de Mendoza, First Viceroy of New Spain (Durham, 1928), iii.Google Scholar

37 Simpson, , Many Mexicos (Berkeley, 1952), 115–116.Google Scholar

38 AGN, Ordenanzas, I, 38–39; II, 236v., as reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas,150–151.

39 “Cartas del Dr. Santiago del Riego,” AGI, Indiferente General 2987.

40 Gibson, Charles, Tlaxcala in the Sixteenth Century (New Haven, 1952), 155.Google Scholar

41 AGI, Audiencia de Méjico 26, exp. 1.

42 Bancroft, Hubert H., History of Mexico (6 vols.; San Francisco, 1883–1889), III, 616–617Google Scholar, citing Humboldt, Essai, II, 667.

43 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 1, ramo 8, “Mapa de los Obrajes que tiene este reino.”

44 Bancroft, History of Mexico, III, 497.

45 AGN, Historia 122, passim; AGN, Civil 1735, passim.

46 Bancroft, History of Mexico, III, 483, 617.

47 See the multiplicity of data in AGN, Historia 122 and AGN, Civil 1735. See also Bancroft, History of Mexico, III, 497; Orozco, Luis Chavez, Documentos para la Historia Económica de México (2 tomos; México, 1933–1936), I, exp. 2.Google Scholar

48 AGN, Historia 122, exps. 5,6. On July 26, 1776 the Alcabala (sales tax) was placed under centralized jurisdiction, and on October 20, 1780 the tax was standardized at two percent. Prior to this time some areas taxed sales and other jurisdictions taxed manufactures, including obraje textiles, at their source. Under this system some obrajes were taxed twice while others were not taxed at all, depending on whether the factory was in a particular jurisdiction, and whether it sold goods in another. Further, there was a production tax on looms in some cities. The Director General of Aduanas in 1793 made a study of textiles and finally determined to levy the tax only at the manufacturing end. Obrajes enteros (more than twelve looms) were to pay four pesos per loom and obrajes medios (six to twelve looms) two pesos per loom per year. After due deliberation the ministers of the treasury negated the plan because instead of increasing revenues it promised “to cause injury to the industry.” The Tribunal of Accounts finally recommended abolition of all charges on looms in New Spain.

49 AGN, Historia 122, f. 9, Don Miguel José de Azanza, “Circulares pidiendo muestras de tejidos del pais,” México 9 de octubre de 1799.Google Scholar

50 AGN, Historia 122, fs. 27–28, 42rv, 45; Don Miguel Cayetano Coler, “Extractos de las relaciones reunidas con el fin de averiguar los progressos que han tenido las manufacturas de seda y lana en el distrito del virreinato de Nueva España desde el año de 1796 hasta la fecha,” San Cristóbal, 26 de abril de 1800, 163 rv.

51 Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 11.

52 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 18, “Testimonios sobre obrajes de San Luis Potosí, 1784–1804.” Other materials comparable to the San Luis Potosí testimonies are found in AGN, Historia 72, exp. 24, “Tablas geográfico-políticas del Reino de Nueva España que mantienen en superficie, población, agricultura, fábricas, comercio, etc. por el Barón de Humboldt.”; AGN, Historia 73, exp. 10, “Noticia del número de fábricas, obrajes, batanes y molinos de esta Provincia (Valladolid)”; AGN, Historia 74, exp. 10, “Sobre las fábricas de Veracruz y otros lugares.”

53 AGN, Historia 73, fs. 431–436 has added material on the San Luis Potosí obrajes and included muestras (samples) of the cloth produced pasted on to the document.

54 AGN, Historia 122, fs. 141–156.

55 AGN, Historia 122, exps. 2, 5, 6, contain examples of all kinds of cloth woven in New Spain. Unfortunately quite a few of the muestras have been removed from the sample sheets.

56 AGN, Historia 122, exp. 1, fş. 2–6, “Reservadísimo sobre fábricas y telares de manufacturas del Reino (copia),” México 15 de septiembre de 1802.

57 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 1, ramo 1.

58 Ibid.

69 AGN, Reales Cédulas Duplicadas CIII, 43–45 rv., as reproduced in Zavala, Ordenanzas, 138–145.

60 Carrera Stampa, El Obraje, 157–158.

61 Don Martín de Mayorga, “Bando sobre el régimen de los Obrajes,” México, 4 de octubre de 1781 Google Scholar (formerly announced by the Marqués de Croix, México, 11 de junio de 1776), reproduced in Chavez Orozco, El Obraje, 55–62.

62 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 1, ramo 5.

63 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 1, ramo 1.

64 Ibid. See also two documents dealing with the repartimiento of convicts in 1739–1740 in AGN, General de Parte XXVII, 156 rv. as reproduced in Zavala and Castelo, Fuentes, VIII, 269–270, and AGN, General de Parte XXVII, 193 v., as reproduced in Zavala and Castelo, Fuentes, VIII, 271–272.

65 AGN, Inquisición 912, exp. 24, “Regulación y orden Antigua que la Real Sala del Crimen tenía (y a su ejemplar los demás Tribunales) en vender y rematar el servicio de los reos condenados a obrajes, trapiches, panaderías, México, 1747.”

66 AGN, Historia 122, fs. 13–19.

67 AGI, Audiencia de Mejico 673, “Expediente sobre si los montañeses Españoles que cometan delitos en las Indias deben ser condenados en la pena de obrajes, 1720–1728.” In this compendium of data of cases before the criminal sala of the Audiencia de Mexico which was sent to the Council of the Indies are found lists of Spaniards condemned to obrajes in the years since 1715, some details of the crimes, and some general description of obraje conditions. The debate of whether Spaniards should be subjected to “this cruel punishment” fills man ages.

68 AGN, Historia 122, 45 rv.

69 AGN, Historia 122, 48–50.

70 AGN, Historia 122, 61–62 v.

71 AGN, Historia 122, 82–83.

72 AGN, Historia 122, 89 rv.

73 See supra, Mayorga, “Bando (1781)” as reproduced by Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 56–57.

74 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 14.

75 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 4.

76 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 24, fs. 390–391.

77 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 24, fs. 390–391.

78 AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 24.

79 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 1. A similar group of documents was collected in Spain for study of the Council of the Indies: AGI, Audiencia de Méjico 644, “Expediente sobre obrajes del distrito de aquella Audiencia 1703–1757.” Particular emphasis was placed on the Querétaro area.

80 “Mándase cerrar el obraje de Don Baltasar de Santo,” El Pardo, 19 de febrero de 1761, reproduced in Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 53–54.

81 AGN, Civil 1712, exp. 1.

82 “Bando sobre Obrajes, 1781 “as reproduced by Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 55–62. See supra, note 61.

83 Ibid.

84 For the actual testimonies see AGN, Civil 1735, exp. 19, Visita de Obrajes de Coyoacán, 1791.” For the report to the Viceroy see AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 3, “Ex pediente formado sobre visitas de Obrajes de Coyoacán, Año de 1792.”

85 “No tiene cosa alguna que pedir contra su administrador,” Ibid., 5.

86 “El trabajo industrial en la Nueva España a mediados del siglo XVII, vista a los obrajes de paños en la jurisdicción de Coyoacán, 1660,” Boletín del Archivo General de la Nación (México), XI, 33–116. The documents are contained in AGN, Historia! 117, exp. 11.

87 AGN, Civil 1628, exp. 9.

88 AGN, Civil 1627, exps. 8 and 10. As Simpson noted in his study of the Repartimiento, 77, only in extraordinary cases did the Juzgado de Indios intervene on behalf of the Indian. In the Rodriguez case there was a jurisdictional reason for this, since the Audiencia’s criminal chamber exercised original jurisdiction in criminal cases arising in Mexico City and within a radius of five leagues. See Haring, Clarence, The Spanish Empire in America (New York, 1963), 120.Google Scholar

89 “Otro bando sobre Obrajes, 1805,” reproduced in Chávez Orozco, El Obraje, 61–62.