THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES 153
actually made more acute the misery of the lower
classes. This circumstance helps explain the popu-
lar character of the revolts of 1780–1781 as dis-
tinct from the creole wars of independence of the
next generation. With rare exceptions, the privi-
leged creole group either supported the Spaniards
against the native uprisings or joined the revolu-
tionary movements under pressure, only to desert
them at a later time.
Most eighteenth-century revolts had a pre-
dominantly native peasant character. A signifi cant
exception was the Quito insurrection of 1765; in
his study of this revolt, Anthony McFarlane calls
it “the longest, largest, and most formidable ur-
ban insurrection of eighteenth-century Spanish
America.” Against a backdrop of economic depres-
sion caused by the decline of Quito’s textile indus-
try as a result of competition from Spanish and
foreign contraband imports, sections of the elite
joined artisans and shopkeepers in protest against
threatened new taxes and changes in the aguar-
diente (rum) monopoly that endangered vested
interests. Despite the large size of the ensuing riots
and the strong hostility displayed toward Span-
ish merchants, the insurrection never challenged
Spanish sovereignty. Mexico City had a series of ri-
ots in the eighteenth century, sparked by efforts of
Bourbon administrators to suppress begging, regu-
late the use of liquor, and change working condi-
tions in the tobacco factory. Silvia Arróm fi nds
it signifi cant that in Mexico City, as in Quito, the
urban poor successfully resisted Bourbon efforts to
regulate their lives. “Thus, the popular classes con-
tested the state for control of their daily lives, and
they often won.”
THE REVOLT IN PERU
In the eighteenth century, Spanish pressures and
demands on Peru’s indígenas increased consid-
erably. A major mechanism for the exploitation
of natives was the previously mentioned repar-
timiento de mercancías, among the most hateful
of the exactions to which indigenous people were
subjected. A recent study fi nds that it fi gured as
a cause in the great majority of revolts in Peru in
the eighteenth century. The system functioned
as follows: a Lima merchant advanced the sum
of money needed by a corregidor to buy his post
from the crown. The merchant also outfi tted the
corregidor with the stock of goods that he would
“distribute”—that is, force indigenous residents of
his district to buy, sometimes for six or eight times
their fair market price. In the Cuzco region, typical
repartimiento goods were mules and textiles, but
sometimes these goods included items for which
the natives had no possible use. They were forced
to pay for their purchases within an allotted time
or go to prison; many had to leave their villages to
obtain the needed cash by working in mines, ob-
rajes, and haciendas. The system thus served to
erode the traditional peasant economy and pro-
moted two objectives of the state, the merchants,
and other ruling-class groups: the expansion of the
internal market for goods and the enlargement of
the labor market.
In the same period the burdens imposed by
the mining mita increased. Determined to return the
output of Potosí silver to its former high levels, the
crown and the mine owners made innovations that
greatly intensifi ed the exploitation of native labor.
The ore quotas that the mitayos (drafted work ers)
were required to produce were doubled between
1740 and 1790 from about fi fteen loads per day to
thirty, forcing the mitayos to work longer for the
same wages and compelling their wives and chil-
dren to assist them in meeting the quotas. In the
same period the wages of both mitayos and mingas
(free workers) were reduced. These innovations
produced the desired revival of Potosí, with a dou-
bling of silver production, but they were gained at a
heavy price in native health and living standards.
Coupled with increases in alcabalas (sales
taxes), the continuing abuses of the repartimiento
de mercancías and the mita caused intense discon-
tent. A critical point was reached when visitador
José de Areche, sent out by Charles III in 1777 to
reform conditions in the colony, tightened up the
collection of tribute and sales taxes and broadened
the tributary category to include all mestizos. This
change increased the contribution of indígenas by
1 million pesos annually. These measures not only
caused great hardships to the commoners, but
they also created greater diffi culties for the native