HIGHLAND COMMUNITIES OF CENTRAL PERU—TSCHOPIK by / 
It is a significant fact that Spanish communica- 
tion patterns, which came into being early in 
Colonial times, persisted in general virtually 
without change late into the 19th century, or 
until the construction of the railways. Vazquez 
de Espinosa (1942, p. 463), who traveled the 
established route from Lima to Ayacucho and 
thence to Cuzco about the year 1616, lists 24 
posts of the Peruvian Courier Stage, the distance 
between any two of which represented a day’s 
journey by horse. From Lima the road passed 
to Jauja by way of Chirillos and Huarochirf, 
and from this place, via Huancayo, to Acos 
(or Acostambo). From Acos a secondary route 
led to Huancavelica and to Castrovirreina. 
Although Indians and llama pack trains traveled 
from this point to the Coast at Pisco, following 
the steep gorge of the river of the same name, this 
route does not appear to have been of primary 
importance during the early 17th century 
(Vazquez de Espinosa, 1942, p. 530). From 
Acos, the road continued to Ayacucho (then 
called Huamanga). From this city, the road 
passed through Tambillo, Andahuailas, Abancay, 
Curahuasi, Limatambo, and from this town to 
Cuzco. Squier (1877, pp. 533-568) who traveled 
from Cuzco to Ayacucho and thence to the coast 
at Pisco in the 1860's, followed virtually the same 
route as that traversed by Vazquez de Espinosa 
some 250 years earlier. 
As in Inca times, most of the great Colonial 
cities, with the notable exception of Lima and 
Trujillo, from Bogoté in Colombia to Potosi in 
Bolivia, were situated in the Highlands; in most 
instances, the rise in importance of the coastal 
cities postdates the construction of the railways. 
At the time when the inter-Andean valleys were 
the chief routes of communication, Ayacucho was 
an important commercial center; roads joined it 
with Cuzco, with the mines of Huancavelica, and 
with the coastal towns of Ica and Pisco, which 
served as its principal outlets to the sea. Huan- 
cayo functioned, although to a far lesser extent, 
during the Colonial period as a trading and com- 
munications hub, while Huancavelica flourished 
chiefly because of its rich mercury mines. Al- 
though extensive silver mines were worked in the 
Cerro de Pasco region during Colonial times, this 
fact seems not to have given rise to important 
23 The highland King’s Highway continued north to Quito in Ecuador, 
passing through Hudnuco and Cajamarca. (See Vazquez de Espinosa, 1942, 
pp. 400, 486.) 
towns, and the nearest large cities appear to have 
been Hudnuco to the north and Tarma to the 
southeast. 
Although many Highland products, particularly 
minerals, wool and woolen articles, and livestock, 
were transported to Lima, and articles of Euro- 
pean manufacture as well as Coastal products 
were brought up to the Sierra, Colonial commerce 
appears to have been far more local and regional 
in character than is true today (Valega, 1939, 
pp. 455-460). Owing to the great distances 
which had to be traveled, to the difficulties in- 
volved in transporting perishable goods on animal 
back, and to other factors relating to the complex 
economic organization of the Viceroyalty, local 
fairs and native markets thrived and the larger 
cities tended to be important regional economic, 
as well as administrative and religious, centers to 
a far greater degree than is true at the present 
time. 
During the Colonial period, merchandise con- 
tinued to be transported overland by pack animals, 
and, because they were able to carry heavier loads, 
mules, horses, and burros began to replace Hamas 
as beasts of burden. Colonial commerce was 
carried on chiefly by arrieros, or professional mule- 
teers, who, by means of their extensive trains of 
pack animals, transported goods and merchandise 
from one region to another. During the 18th 
century, these individuals, financed by local busi- 
nessmen or by the wealthy merchants of Lima, 
made trips to the Coast or to other Highland towns 
to sell the local products. In Lima they purchased 
articles of European manufacture, wines and liq- 
uors, and other Coastal products and returned to 
sell these in the principal cities of the Highlands. 
These cities in turn supplied the neighboring towns 
and villages (Valega, 1939, p. 457). The arriero 
commercial system survives to the present day in 
some towns, remote from the railways, such as 
Carmen Alto in Ayacucho Department. 
RAILWAYS AND HIGHWAYS 
The construction of the railways completely 
changed the organization of communications in the 
2? Means (1932, p. 223) states that merchandise going from Spain to the 
Peruvian markets consisted chiefly of such woven fabrics as linens, silks, and 
metallic stuffs; luxury articles such as watches, firearms, glassware; and also 
iron and steel, general hardware, wines, drugs, and fine olive oil. The return 
cargoes consisted, first and foremost, of precious metals, and secondly of such 
raw materials as vicuna wool, tobacco, cacao, sugar, quinine, coca, hides, 
dyewoods, and cotton. 
30 For a discussion of the survival of the arriero system, see Castro Pozo 
1924, pp. 491-498. 
