The Indian Caste of Peru, 1795-1940 



A Population Study Based Upon Tax Records and Census 



Reports 



By George Kubler 



INTRODUCTION: THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TAX REGISTERS 



The first half -century of Peruvian independence 

 from Spain has for all practical purposes been an 

 ethnohistorical blank. Knowledge of demographic 

 processes until 1876 has been almost entirely lack- 

 ing. The status, treatment, and behavior of the 

 Indian population were virtually unknown. The 

 processes and the rate of formation of the im- 

 mense mestizo population of modern Peru were 

 unknown. The effects of large and rapid con- 

 centration of land in the hands of few owners, 

 are still undescribed from an ethnohistorical point 

 of view. For all these problems evidence has 

 heretofore been lacking, excepting in the random 

 impressions of foreign travelers in Peru. 



Peru fortunately possesses an abundant demo- 

 graphic record covering the second quarter of the 

 nineteenth century. It appears in the tax lists, or 

 matriculas, of the period 1826-54. In these tax 

 lists the inhabitants of Peru are classified by caste 

 and by vocation. The matriculas (pi. 1 gives a 

 sample of their workmanship) are mainly pre- 

 served in the Archivo Hist6rico del Ministerio de 

 Hacienda, where they have been cataloged and 

 filed under the direction of Federico Schwab. 

 Several more volumes of the same series are kept 

 in the Archivo Nacional and in the archive of the 

 Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, at the Palacio 

 Torre Tagle: they are noted in the text and Bibli- 

 ography. The main collection, numbering 160 

 volumes at the Archivo Hist6rico del Ministerio 

 de Hacienda, is incomplete. Reports from many 

 provinces and in many quinquennial periods are 

 lacking. As the period 1826-54 contains six 



taxation periods at 5-year intervals, during which 

 the head count was made for all Peruvians in 

 58 provinces, 1 we may assume that 348 reports 

 would ideally have been prepared, each in four 

 sections. But provincial cooperation frequently 

 failed. Many provinces sent no reports to Lima. 

 Many reports were lost in transit and in the 

 archival disorder of the past 80 years. Where and 

 when the missing reports will be found is a matter 

 of conjecture. For the present it is clear that the 

 surviving matriculas, 164 in number (table 1), 

 allow a remarkably detailed interpretation of 

 Peruvian demographic processes, when combined 

 with other sources of the period. Such sources 

 are preserved in the Archivo Hist&rico, in a sep- 

 arate file of decrees and correspondence relating to 

 tax legislation, tax collection, and administrative 

 procedure (see Bibliography, under Archival 

 Sources) . 



As in the Colonial era, demographic information 

 was a byproduct of tax collection. The Colonial 

 system of tribute, revived in 1826 as the contri- 

 bution de indigenas, continued in force until 1854. 

 The tax collectors of this era followed the practice 

 of their Colonial predecessors in the main lines, 

 but they enriched it with a more inclusive network 



1 Jose Qregorio Paredes, MS., correspondence from the Contadurla general 

 de valorcs, to the Ministro de Estado on el despacho de Hacienda. August 

 18, 1834. AHMH, 0. L. 233/193. 



Jose Gregorio Paredes (1799-1839) was "cosmografo mayor do la repiibllca" 

 and the author of several almanacs. See Schwab, 1948, p. 14, and No. 92a. 

 Paredes was chief accountant for tho Treasury from 1833 on. 



In 1834 Paredes roportcd in the correspondence cited above that the 58 

 provinces of Peru had yielded 118 registers of all classes. Ho recommended 

 that separate books bo usod for reporting tho four classes of taxpayers. 



