MOCHE; A PERUVIAN COASTAL COMMUMTi— GILl.IN 



73 



ago, his widow, by that time an old woman, prudently 

 bought land and animals with the proceeds so that 

 she, her children, and grandchildren are now able to 

 live in a good house in the pueblo, hire peons to 

 work the fields, take occasional trips to Lima, and 

 plan to maintain one of the grandsons in the Uni- 

 versity in Lima for the next 3 or 4 years. This 

 is the only case of life insurance of which I know. 

 As a general rule, families keep savings in cash 

 only sufficient to cover emergencies, such as fimerals, 

 doctor bills, etc. Caches of money are also built 

 up in anticipation of religious festivals and family 

 festivals such as christenings, weddings, and birth- 

 days. 



The most profitable form of investment is thought 

 to be cows or female calves. Not only does the in- 

 vestor obtain income from the sale of the milk, but 

 the investment steadily increases through the calves 

 produced, and with luck one does not have to wait too 

 long for a turnover. Cattle are always readily salable, 

 although not always at the desired price, and are thus 

 "liquid assets." Even men w'ithout land or with 

 insufficient land invest in cows, which are pastured 

 on other men's land either on a share basis (half the 

 proceeds from the cow ) or on a fee basis. It is said 

 that pasturage may be obtained for 10 centavos per 

 day per cow. Some complaint is heard that cows 

 thus boarded out on a cash basis lend to be maltreated 

 bv the owner of the jiastnre. 



Land is also a good investment, although difficult 

 to acquire. No sales of land took place during my 

 period in JMoche and, in any case, land is sold by the 

 piece after an appropriate amount of bargaining, so 

 that it is difficult to quote prices in terms of standard 

 areas. Several forastcro men told me that "they 

 would gladly give 2,000 soles ($306) a hectare" for 

 good Moche land ; another said he thought it was 

 worth only about 1,500 soles a hectare, while still an- 

 other claimed one would be lucky to get it for 3,000 

 soles a hectare. I do not know if these estimates 

 mean anything in practical terms or not, except that 

 scarcely any amount of money will buy his land from 

 a Mochero, unless he be in dire financial straits. 



Those who own land as an investment usually rent 

 it on shares (a partidos). The owner furnishes the 

 land and pays the water rent : the tenant furnishes his 

 labor, the tools, and the seed. The proceeds are 

 divided equally between owner and tenant. The 

 municipality, however, has several parcels of land, all 

 of which are rented for cash ; the income is used for 

 the municipal expenses. 



Houses in the pueblo are another field for invest- 

 ment. Houses rented to Mocheros for ordinary 

 dwellings rent for from 3 to 8 soles per month, most 

 of them nearer the lower than the higher figure. I 

 rented one without bargaining for 10 soles to use as 

 an interviewing headquarters. The more profitable 

 type of renting is to jorasteros. either those who make 

 the pueblo their suburban home or those who come 

 to pass 2 or 3 months during the summer season. I 

 was ofi'ered a house with six rooms (not counting 

 various small storage rooms), kitchen, small gardens 

 front and rear, and tile floors for 25 soles per month 

 during the winter. According to local opinion I 

 could have obtained it for about 20 soles on a year- 

 round basis, and would have had to pay about 25 

 soles for the summer season. 



There are various other smaller ways to turn a 

 sum of money into a larger sum. For example, a 

 woman, if astute and luckw may turn 12 soles into 

 15 or 20 soles relatively quickly as follows. She 

 buys from a woman who makes chicha a botija of the 

 brew for 12 soles, the standard "wholesale" price. 

 Then .she sells it out retail at 15 centavos a bottle, 

 clearing 3 soles for her trouble. (A botija contains 

 100 bottles of chiclia). If she can get 20 centavos per 

 bottle, her profit is 8 soles. 



Women are engaged in deals of this sort all the 

 time, usually on a small scale. For example, one of 

 the women of my acquaintance operated during 1 day 

 as follows: Her husband milked the cows early in 

 the morning, obtaining 12 1. of milk, which the 

 woman sold to a revcndadora for 28 centavos a liter, 

 3.56 soles. She left the 6 centavos in her savings 

 cache and pocketed the 3.50. Then she loaded two 

 donkeys with yucas (the donkey she rode carried 

 only a partial load) and set ofl: for the market in 

 Trujillo, arriving at her assigned stall about 7 a. m. 

 By 10 :30 she had disposed of the yucas for 4.10 soles. 

 She began to shop around the market, looking for 

 left-over fruit. The bulk of the retail selling in the 

 market is over by 11a. m. and usually some of the 

 women have not succeeded in disposing of all their 

 produce and are w^illing to sell off the remainder at 

 reduced prices. My friend is a shrewd bargainer and 

 succeeded in getting her donkeys loaded with assorted 

 fruit in good condition for 4.50 soles, although it took 

 her until about noon to do so. She then set out for 

 Moche, arriving about 2 p. m. at her house in the 

 town. She set up a table just inside the front door 

 and spread out the fruit for display. She is known 

 as a seller of items from the market, and customers 



653.148° 



