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Labor in Cortesian Enterprise: The Cuernavaca Area, 1522-15491

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

G. Micheal Riley
G. Micheal Riley*
Affiliation:
Marquette University
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Extract

Fernando Cortés lived twenty-five years after his first, perhaps only, enterprise of grand design and gigantic proportion, the conquest of the Aztec Confederacy. In those remaining years, his were a multitude of endeavors; many, an outgrowth of his brilliantly successful triumph over the Aztecs, and most, dependent—for funds, materiél, and manpower—upon his great estate, a huge enterprise in itself.

Located in central and southern México, the estate comprised numerous, populous encomiendas, extensive landholdings, mines, Indian and Negro slaves and various commercial establishments. It was known as the Marquesado de Cortés after 1529 and in 1535 was constituted, with royal authorization, a mayorazgo, or entailed estate. Following Cortés’ death in 1547, it became the property of his legitimate son and designated heir, Don Martín.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 28 , Issue 3 , January 1972 , pp. 271 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1972

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Footnotes

1

An abbreviated form of this essay was a part of the program for the Western History Association Meeting, Omaha, Nebraska, October 9-11, 1969. The Social Science Research Council and the University of New Mexico funded much of the archival and other investigation necessary to its development. The author is indebted to Professor France V. Scholes, Research Professor Emeritus in the University of New Mexico, for guidance, assistance, and some of the materials utilized in its preparation.

References

2 See Riley, G. Micheal, “Fernando Cortés and the Cuernavaca Encomiendas,” The Americas, 25 # 1 (1968), 2–24.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 100, Proceso de Tepoztlan y Yautepec contra el Marqués sobre que no pueden complir [con sus tributos], 1551; Hospital de Jesús 289, exp. 102, Proceso de la villa de Cuernavaca contra el Marqués del Valle sobre que no pueden complir [con sus tributos], 1551; Hospital de Jesús 293, exp. 144, Proceso de Don Hernando, indio de Cuernavaca contra el Marqués del Valle sobre tierras, 1536; and Hospital de Jesús 377, exp. 1, Razón de ciertos pueblos del Marqués del Valle, 1536. The buildings and lands acquired by Cortés were expropriated, purchased and rented from local and Aztecan nobles, officials, communities and institutions. For a discussion of the same, see Riley, G. Micheal, “The Estate of Fernando Cortés in the Cuernavaca Area of México, 1522–4547” (Doctoral dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1965), pp. 121–131.Google Scholar

6 See Riley, G. Micheal, “Fernando Cortés and the Cuernavaca Encomiendas, 1522–1547,” The Americas, 25 #1 (1968), 3–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 AGN, HJ 289, exp. 100; HJ 289, exp. 102; HJ 293, exp. 144; and HJ 377, exp. 1.

8 Ibid.

9 AGN, HJ 289, exp. 100 and HJ 289, exp. 102.

10 AGN, HJ 289, exp. 100; HJ 289, exp. 102; HJ 377, exp. 1; del Paso, Francisco y Troncoso, (ed.), Epistolario de Nueva España (16 vols.; México, 1939–1942), 3, 1–4 Google Scholar; and Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista, y organización de las antigual posesiones españolas de America y Oceania (42 vols.; Madrid, 1885–1932), XIV, 142–147.

11 AGN, HJ 289, exp. 100; HJ 289, exp. 102; and HJ 377, exp. 1.

12 Garza, Arteaga, Beatriz, , y San Vicente, Guadalupe Pérez (eds.), Cedulario Cortestano (México, 1949), pp. 103–105.Google Scholar

13 AGN, HJ 289, exp. 100; HJ 289, exp. 102; and HJ 377, exp. 1.

14 Ibid.

15 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 201, Providencias del gobernador del estado [del Marqués del Valle], 1539–1630. This delivery may have been part of an exchange of sugar for Negro slaves between Cortés and the Sevilla based Genoese firm of Marín and Lomelin [See Pike, Ruth, Enterprise and Adventure: The Genoese in Sevilla and the Opening of the New World (Ithaca, New York, 1966), pp. 65–67].Google Scholar

16 AGN, HJ 201.

17 Ibid. The peso de oro (de minas) probably had a gold content value equal to the gold content value of about six of our dollars. On that basis, the peso de oro común had a gold content value of about $3.84, and a tomín of the same (12½%), about $.48. See Scholes, France V., “The Spanish Conqueror as a Businessman,” New Mexico Quarterly, 27, 1 (1958), 11.Google Scholar

18 See Borah, Woodrow and Cook, Sherburne F., Price Trends of Some Basic Commodities in Central Mexico (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1958)Google Scholar and Cook, Sherburne F. and Simpson, Lesley Byrd, The Population of Central Mexico in the Sixteenth Century (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1948).Google Scholar

19 See Zavala, Silvio, Los esclavos indios en Nueva España (México, 1967), pp. 2–25 Google Scholar; Riley, , “The Estate of Fernando Cortés …,” pp. 75–105 Google Scholar and AGN, Hospital de Jesús 107, exp. 31, Hojas sueltas [del estado del Marqués del Valle], undated. In the last of these purchases (by the manager of the Tlaltenango mill) of two convict laborers at later dates (1548 and 1558) are recorded.

20 Zavala, , Los esclavos indios, pp. 26, 27, 54Google Scholar; Riley, , “The Estate of Fernando Cortés …,” 75–105 Google Scholar; and AGN, Hospital de Jesús 9, exp. 31, Proceso de Serrano de Cardona contra el Marqués del Valle sobre ciertas pesos … e sobre la madera, 1531.

21 Documentos inéditos relativos a Hernán Cortés y su familia (Mexico, 1935), pp. 225–299.

22 AGN, HJ 9, exp. 31.

23 Documentos … Hernán Cortés y su familia, 225–299.

24 For a brief discussion of the establishment and early history of the Atlacomulco mill, see Riley, , “The Estate of Fernando Cortés …,” 126 ss.Google Scholar

25 Beltrán, Gonzalo Aguirre, “El trabajo del indio comparado con el negro en Nueva España,” México Agrario, 4 (1942), 203–207 Google Scholar and Zavala, , Los esclavos indios, pp. 66–75.Google Scholar

26 Sandoval, Fernando B., La industria del azúcar en Nueva España (México, 1951), pp. 51–53 Google Scholar; and AGN, Hospital de Jesús 267, exp. 26, Relación de las haciendas y granjerias que el Marqués tiene en Nueva España y en tierras de su estado, 1556. This relación lists 150 Negro slaves, including children, 50 Indian wage-earners and no Indian slaves as employed at Tlaltenango in 1556.

27 Beltrán, Gonzalo Aguirre, “Comercio de esclavos de México por 1542,” Afroamerica, 1 (1945), 25–40 Google Scholar; Beltrán, Aguirre, “The Slave Trade in Mexico,” Hispanic American Historical Review, 24 (1944), 421–431 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zelinsky, W., “The Historical Geography of the Negro Population of Latin America,” Journal of Negro History, 34 (1942), 153–221 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Boyd-Bowman, Peter, “Negro Slaves in Early Colonial Mexico,” The Americas, 26 (1969), 134–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28 Pike, , Enterprise, p. 65.Google Scholar

29 Pike, , Enterprise, pp. 65–67 Google Scholar and García, Rubén, Aspectos desconocidos del aventurero Hernán Cortés (México, 1956), pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

30 AGN, Hospital de Jesús 247, exp. 8, Testimonio y probanza sobre cien esclavos entregados al Marquesado por L. Lomelín, 1542.

3l AGN, Hospital de Jesús 235, exp. 10, 11. Cuenta de los azucares y algodón que ha recibido García de Morón para la contratación. Ingenio de Cuernavaca, 1540–1543.

32 García, , Aspectos, pp. 70–72, and AGN, HJ 201.Google Scholar

33 AGN, HJ 9, exp. 31.

34 Documentos … Hernán Cortés y su familia, pp. 225–299.

35 Ibid.

36 Ibid.

37 These figures are based on the sale prices of Negro slaves noted in preceding paragraphs and the value equivalents cited in note 17.

38 Zavala, , Los esclavos indios, pp. 66–75.Google Scholar

39 The data included in this table was drawn from Documentos … Hernán Cortés y su familia, pp. 225–299.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid. See Peter Boyd-Bowman, “Negro Slaves …,” for the African location of the specific places cited.

44 Documentos … Hernán Cortés y su familia, pp. 225–299.

45 Ibid. See Boyd-Bowman, “Negro Slaves …,” for the African location of most of the specific places cited.