THE INDIAN CASTE OF PERU, 17 95-1940 — KUBLER 



but the non-Indian population was regularly 

 counted and matriculated. 



About 1836-40 the term casta began to be re- 

 placed by other designations. Especially common 

 from 1840 to 1854 was the rubric of predios e 

 Industrie. This shift from a racial designation, to 

 denomination by landed and artisan groups, did 

 not affect the validity of the head count in the 

 later period. All non-Indians continued to be 

 enumerated, often with the designation as casta, 

 and as "sin bienes ni industria" if the personal tax 

 could be invoked against the individual who 

 owned no property. In general, the shift from the 

 racial to an occupational classification of non- 

 Indians did not greatly lessen the value of the tax 

 registers as demographic sources. 



CONTRIBUCION de predios e 

 INDUSTRIA 



It has just been seen that this tax was originally 

 an alternate category in the taxation of non- 

 Indians, directed at the landowners and wage 

 laborers. Until about 1840 the registers of these 

 taxpayers were included in the general matriculas 

 de castas. Then, to counter the opposition aroused 

 by the personal tax on non-Indians, and with the 

 verbal transformations of the personal tax, the 

 contribution de predios e industria became the 

 rubric under which the head count of all non- 

 Indian inhabitants of Peru was conducted. A 

 glance at table 1 shows the relationship between 

 the registers of castas, and the registers of predios e 

 industria. The latter are numerous only after 

 1840; the former appear in numbers before 1840. 

 Both served the same function ; both are essentially 

 identical, in that they enumerate non-Indian popu- 

 lation, less for the hopeless task of collecting 

 revenue, than for maintaining some census of the 

 non-Indian inhabitants. 



THE CONTRIBUCION DE PATENTES 



We pointed out in the section on the fiscal 

 aspects of Early Republican taxation, that the 

 levies upon the artisans were ineffective every- 

 where but in Lima and the largest cities. The 

 Archivo Hist6rico nevertheless contains many 

 registers of this sort for cities of various sizes. 

 These registers give the numbers, the professional 



ratings, and the annual estimated incomes of the 

 various guilds of craftsmen and professional 

 people. As stated in the Preface, the detailed 

 study of such registers is not embraced by the 

 scope of the present work. It may be noted here, 

 however, that on March 3, 1835, the contribution 

 de patentes was abolished without substitute, until 

 June of the same year, when it was restored under 

 the guise of the alcabala de gremios, or guild tax, 

 whereby the individual craftsmen were taxed 

 indirectly through their professional organiza- 

 tions. 21 



The registers of all periods clearly show that 

 prosperous craftsmen in the cities preferred to be 

 listed as indigents, under the personal tax, rather 

 than as liable for the tax of 4 percent on income 

 from the exercise of a craft. Thus in Cotabambas 

 Province in 1830: 22 among 1,472 taxpayers, only 

 169 were declared as property owners and crafts- 

 men. In Huamalies Province in 1841, 23 only 116 

 individuals among 2,942 taxpayers declared them- 

 selves as possessing lucrative occupation. All 

 others were listed as "sin bienes ni industria," and 

 as paying only the personal tax, then 3 pesos 

 annually. Even with these limitations the reg- 

 isters are valuable sources for the economic history 

 of Peru. For instance, in the Villa of Abancay in 

 1836, 24 the following occupations are listed: Seven 

 landowners, five estate managers, four muledrivers, 

 four storekeepers, one silversmith, one tailor, and 

 one blacksmith. The figures indicate only the 

 professionals whose entire activity was patently 

 given to a specialty. The figures take no account 

 of the innumerable part-time craftsmen who com- 

 pose the characteristic urban population of home 

 industries in present-day Peru, and who surely 

 composed it also in the nineteenth century. 



Ji MS. decree. AHMU, O. L. 237/36. Serra reviewed the course of this 

 tax to 1831 in his succinct "Memorias" (MS., AHMII, Q. L. 216/367). 



"MS., "Matricula do Castas de la Provincia de Cotabambas, Departa- 

 mento del Cuzco," AHMH, R. 0104. 130 fos. 



Cf. tho unsigned account, probably based upon an informe written by a tax 

 collector, published in Minerva del Cuzco, January 28, 1832, vol. 30, No. 22: 

 "La contribucidn de castas se hace diflcil. Los blancos tlenen rcpugnaru-ia 

 por clla; al eontrarlo los indfgenas son puntuales. Los primeros pre Hitch 

 enrrolarse en el ejfrcito para cximirse de pagar la contribucion." N'oto tho 

 identification of casta* and blancos, which amounts to an identification of 

 mestizo with white in one caste. 



« MS., "Matricula de Castas y acotacion de Patentes c Industria de la 

 Provincia de nuamalics, Dcp. de Junin," AHMH, P.. 0265. 523 pp. 



" MS., "Matricula do predios e industriales de la Prov* de Abancay 

 actuada en el afio de 1836," AHMH, R. 0195. 9 fos. 



