THE INDIAN CASTE OF PERU, 1795-1940 — KUBLER 



With the abolition of tribute and of the mita 

 and with the recognition of the rights and duties 

 of all classes of Colonial population upon a footing 

 of equality, the way was paved toward universal 

 taxation, under the Colonial government and 

 before its collapse. 



In 1815 taxes were again levied under the In- 

 tendencies from the Indian population (Matraya 

 y Ricci, 1819, vol. 1, p. 519, No. 2979). At this 

 time the offensive term, tributo de indios, was 

 replaced by the euphemism contribution, which 

 persists in modern usage. It is usually identified 

 with Republican taxation, although it is mani- 

 festly a Late Colonial verbal transformation. 



The subtitle of a pamphlet of 1815 candidly ex- 

 plains the transformation. Composed by an In- 

 tendent of the Army, the writing instructs tax 

 collectors upon methods for gathering "that which 

 the Indians are to pay as single tax, in the same 

 amount that they previously satisfied in tribute." " 

 The decree of 1815 restored ordinances and tax 

 rates as of 1808. It brought relief to the 4-year 

 period of fiscal anarchy that had prevailed since 

 the abolition of Indian tribute in 1811. It also 

 equated unica contribution, as levied upon Indians, 

 with the duties and services performed for the 

 Crown by the Spaniards "and other races" (Leuro, 

 1815, p. 4). 



REPUBLICAN TAXATION, 1826-54 



For all its intricate legislative meanders, the 

 underlying pattern of Peruvian taxation from 1826 

 to 1854 consists of only two themes: (1) the con- 

 tribution de indigenas, a personal tax on Indians, 

 identical in every way with Colonial tribute; and 

 (2) the personal, property, or income tax on non- 

 Indians, generically termed the contribution de 

 castas. 



In principle the contribution de castas extended 

 to all Peruvians the Indian tribute tax of Colonial 

 days, under two functional headings: (a) the tra- 

 ditional personal head tax, and (6) the new in- 

 come and property taxes, which exempted the 

 taxpayer from the personal head tax only if equal 

 to or greater than the head tax. 



In practice, three distinct taxes applied to the 

 castas: (1) contribution general, or personal tax, 

 identical to Colonial tribute; (2) property tax and 

 tax on income from property, called contribution 

 de predios rusticos y urbanos; (3) contribution de 

 patentes (or gremios) , an income tax on the exercise 

 of a craft. 



The term casta is a bewildering tangle of fiscal, 

 sociological, and racial concepts. In general 

 Peruvian use it probably signified "non-Indian" 

 and included whites, Negroes, mestizos, and races 

 other than "Indian." Usually, however, the 

 term applies so directly to the mestizo component, 

 as to equate mestizo and casta, insofar as "racial" 

 usage is concerned. On the other hand, social 

 class and vocation are implicit in the term. By 

 social class and by vocation, the term casta signi- 

 fied the day laborer, the industrial worker, the 

 miner, and the artisan, in a group concept com- 

 monly understood today by the term "proletariat" 



(Dancuart, 1903-1905, vol. 1, pp. 60-61). Here 

 the Indian was excluded by his membership in an 

 agrarian commune, and by his traditional tenure 

 of land. Fiscally, the term casta included all 

 individuals not booked upon the Indian tax lists. 

 By fiscal usage all city population, all mobile 

 population, all tenant farmers, and all landowners 

 outside the Indian communes were included. In 

 both "racial" and fiscal usage, the term signified 

 "non-Indian." Among all the "racial," social, 

 and fiscal classes included by the term, the 

 Spaniards and other European immigrants, and 

 the Peruvian "whites" were a small minority. 12 

 The great majority of the castas were also desig- 

 nated as mestizos. In general usage, casta was 

 principally but not entirely identical with the 

 term "mestizo." It is therefore permissible to use 

 the three terms interchangeably: casta, mestizo, 

 and non-Indian — in the nineteenth-century senses 

 of the words. 



THE CONTRIBUCION DE INDIGENAS 



This personal tax on the labor of Indians was 

 essentially a tax on biological existence. Of the 

 early Republican taxes, it was the least subject to 



ii Leuro, 1815. A copy of this very rare pamphlet is in AHMU. (See 

 Schwab, 1947, No. 1657a.) 



i J Classified figures for the "white" population of Peru are available only for 

 1795 and 187G: 



Total 



1795 1,076,173 



1876. 2,699,945 



In 1910 the figures for whites and mestizos were listed together without dis 

 tinction. In 1795 and 1876, the great majority of those listed as whites prob 

 ably enjoyed the classification then as today for economic and geographic 

 reasons. "White" is a casto designation in Peru, relating to economic class 

 and occupation, rather than to biological character. 



H7ii7f 

 (number) 



White 



(percent) 



135, 755 



12.61 



371, 195 



13.75 



