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Labour in the Colonial Mining Industry of Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Linda Newson
Linda Newson*
Affiliation:
King's College, Strand, London
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Extract

Gold and silver production in Honduras probably never exceeded 5% of that produced in Spanish America at any one time during the colonial period, but it was of considerable importance to the local economy and employed a significant proportion of the total workforce. In Spanish America as a whole the types of labour that were employed in mining were extremely varied. During the early Conquest period Indian slaves were used to pan gold in the Antilles, and later Mexican silver mining relied on the employment of free labour supplemented by that of Indian and Negro slaves. In Colombia the repartimiento provided Indians for mining up to 1729, by which time the Indian population and gold production had declined, but in Peru the mita continued to supply labour for the mines until its abolition in 1812, although by that time the mines had become heavily dependent on free labour. The dominant type of labour employed in mining in any one area at any one time appears to have been strongly influenced by the availability of Indian labour, which was largely determined by the size of the Indian population and the number of competing demands for labour, and by the profitability of mining, which determined the ability of miners to overcome shortages of labour. These influences were very apparent in the mining industry in Honduras, where during the colonial period many different types of labour were employed: Indian slaves, Indians working in the service of encomenderos, Negro slaves, Spanish immigrant workers, Indians working under the repartimiento and free labourers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , October 1982 , pp. 185 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1982 

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References

This paper forms part of a more extensive study of the colonial experience of the Indian in Honduras and Nicaragua for which financial support was received from the Social Science Research Council, the Central Research Fund of the University of London and the Sir Ernest Cassel Educational Trust and to all of whom the author wishes to express her thanks.

1 For labour in colonial mining industries see: Bakewell, P. J., Silver Mining and Society in Colonial Mexico: Zacatecas, 1546–1700 (Cambridge, 1971) pp. 121–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brading, D., Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, 1763–1810 (Cambridge, 1971) pp. 7–9 Google Scholar; Brading, D. and Cross, H. E., “Colonial Silver Mining: Mexico and Peru,” Hispanic American Historical Review, (1972) 52, pp. 557–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Villamarin, J. A. and Villamarin, J. E., Indian Labour in Mainland Colonial Spanish America (Newark, Delaware, 1975) pp. 23–45 Google Scholar; West, R. C., The Mining Community in Northern New Spain: The Parral Mining District, Ibero-Americana 30 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1949) pp. 47–51 Google Scholar and Colonial Placer Mining in Colombia (Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1952) pp. 78–101.

2 Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla (hereafter AGI) Audiencia de Guatemala (hereafter AG) 9 López de Salcedo to Crown 31.12.1526; de Oviedo, G. Fernández y Valdés, , Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano, 5 vols.,Google Scholar Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, 117-21 (Madrid, 1959) III lib. 12 cap.7 p. 388.

3 AGI AG 49 Barrientos to Crown 25.7.1534.

4 AGI Patronato (hereafter PAT) 183–15 Sobre minas…en Gracias a Dios 8.5.1531.

5 AGI AG 49 Celis to Crown 10.5.1535, AG 39 Cerezeda to Crown 31.8.1535; Colección de Documentos Inéditos Relativos al Descubrimiento, Conquista y Organización de las Posesiones Españoles en América y Oceanía (hereafter CDI) 42 vols. (Madrid, 1864–84) XIV pp. 297–300 Cabildo of Puerto de Caballos to Crown 12.8.1536.

6 CDI II pp. 212-244 and XXIV pp. 250-97 Montejo to Crown 1.6.1539.

7 Chamberlain, R. S., The Conquest and Colonisation of Honduras, 1502–1550, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication no. 598 (Washington, D.C., 1953) pp. 517–20.Google Scholar

8 AGI AG 52 Lerma to Crown 1.6.1537.

9 AGI AG 49 Royal officials to Crown 21.7.1542, AG 49 Celis to Crown 14.3.1542. The treasury accounts give a total of 179,103 pesos of gold for the period 1539 to July 1542, whilst the figures given by Celis are 24,000 pesos for 1540, 40,000 pesos for 1541 and 45,000 pesos for 1542. See also AGI PAT 180-1-74 Relación de las fundiciones… 1539–1541.

10 Chamberlain, op. cit., p. 234; AGI PAT 63-22 Probanza of Castellanos 1560, copy made 1623.

11 AGI Contaduría (hereafter CO) 988 Treasury accounts 1557-1573. Between 1557 and 1563 about 3,000 pesos were produced annually but by the 1570s production had fallen to about 1,000 pesos a year.

12 For an account of the Indian population of Honduras in the sixteenth century see: Newson, L. A., “Demographic Catastrophe in Sixteenth-Century Honduras”, in Studies in Spanish American Population History, ed. Robinson, D. J. (Boulder, Colorado, 1981) pp. 217–41.Google Scholar

13 AGI AG 39 Cerezeda to Crown 31.8.1535, AG 39 Cerezeda to Crown 14.8.1536; Sherman, W. L., Forced Native Labor in Sixteenth-Century Central America, (Lincoln and London, 1979) p. 72.Google Scholar

14 AGI AG 52 Lerma to Crown 1.6.1537.

l5 Sherman, op. cit., p. 32.

16 AGI AG 43 Caceres to Crown 5.9.1539; CDI XXIV pp. 352-81 García to Crown 1.2.1539; AGI AG 9 Anon, to Crown 21.2.1546, AG 44 Cabildo of Gracias a Dios to Crown 6.9.1547; Chamberlain, op. cit., p. 112.

17 AGI AG 9 Montejo to Crown 27.7.1537.

18 AGI AG 44 Cabildo of Gracias a Dios to Crown 10.8.1539.

19 Oviedo, op. cit.. III lib. 12 cap. 7 pp. 389–90.

20 AGI AG 9, CDI II pp. 212-244 and XXIV pp. 250-297 Montejo to Crown 1.6.1539; AG 49 Royal officials to Crown 20.9.1547. For a full discussion of the dispute between the Governor of Honduras and Guatemalan miners see Fuentes, F. A. y Guzmán, , Recordación Florida, 3 vols..Google Scholar Biblioteca de Autores Españoles 230, 251 and 259 (Madrid, 1969-72) II pp. 165–7; Chamberlain, op. cit., 111–5; Oviedo, op. cit.. III lib. 12 cap. 7 pp. 389–90.

21 AG 9 and CDI XXIV pp. 298–310 Montejo to Crown 1.6.1539.

22 AGI AG 44 Cabildo of Puerto de Caballos to Crown 1.11.1539; Chamberlain, op. cit., p. 237.

23 Archivo General de Centro América, Guatemala City (hereafter AGCA) A1.23 1511 f.40 Cédula 5.7.1546; AGI AG 401-3 Cédula 22.2.1549.

24 AGI AG 44 Cabildo of Trujillo to Crown 30.3.1530 request for 200 slaves, AG 49 Barrientos to Crown 25.7.1534 request for 100, AG 49 Celis to Crown 14.3.1542 request for 3,000 for Olancho, AG 49 Royal officials to Crown 4.5.1548 request for 200 for silver mines, AG 44 Pedraza to Crown, no date, request for 500 slaves for the mines.

25 AGI AG 965 Royal officials to Crown 17.2.1542.

26 AGI AG 9 and CDI XXIV pp. 343-51 Maldonado to Crown 15.1.1543.

27 Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid (hereafter RAHM) Colección Muñoz (hereafter CM) A/110 4845 Royal officials to Crown 20.2.1543.

28 AGI PAT 183-1-16 Antonelli and López de Quintanillas to Crown 7.10.1590, PAT 63-22 Probanza of Castellanos 1560, copy made 1623; RAHM 9/4663 no. 15 Relación Geográfica of Valverde 24.8.1590; Ponce, Fr. Alonso, Relación Breve y Verdadera de Algunas Cosas de las Muchas que Sucedieron al Pedro Alonso Ponce en las Provincias de Nueva España (Madrid, 1873) p. 349.Google Scholar Authors of these accounts give different estimates of the numbers employed in mining ranging from 20,000 to 27,000.

29 de Velasco, J. López, Geografía y Descripción Universal de las Indias (Madrid, 1894) p. 313.Google Scholar

30 AGI 8 Soto Pachon to Crown 10.4.1570, AG 10 Valverde to Crown 30.3.1580, AG 43 Cabildo of Valladolid (Comayagua) to Crown 17.4.1581, AG 39 Ponce de Leon to Crown 26.5.1584.

31 AGI AG 55 Cisneros de Reynoso to Crown 12.4.1581.

32 Vázquez de Espinosa records that ores were discovered at San Juan in 1621 (de Espinosa, A. Vázquez, Compendium and Description of the West Indies, Smithsonian Institution of Washington. Miscellaneous Collections no. 102 (Washington, D.C., 1942 p. 245).Google Scholar The San Salvador mines were discovered at the beginning of the seventeenth century; four mines were being worked there in 1648 (AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas de Tegucigalpa…Bernal del Cano to Crown 5.9.1648). The mines at San Antonio de Yeguare were not worked in earnest until the 1680s ( Guardiola, G., “Apuntes acerca del Mineral de San Antonio del Oriente,” Revista del Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Honduras (1927) 6, pp. 241–5Google Scholar; many mines were registered in that area during the decade (See Archivo Nacional de la Historia, Tegucigalpa, (hereafter ANH) Paquetes 4 and 6).

33 Vera, R., Apuntes para la Historia de Honduras (Santiago, Chile, 1899) p. 139 Google Scholar; Jáuregui, A. Batres, La América Central ante la Historia, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1920) I p. 408 Google Scholar; Ximénez, F., Historia de la Provincia de San Vicente de Chiapa y Guatemala, 6 vols. (1929–1971) IV cap. 21 p. 103, cap. 22 p. 106, cap. 26 p. 123.Google Scholar

34 Fuentes y Guzmán, op. cit., II pp. 263–6.

35 West, R. C.. “The Mining Economy of Honduras during the Colonial Period,” XXXIII International Congress of Americanists, Costa Rica (San Jose, 1959) II p. 770.Google Scholar

36 AG I AG 55 Cisneros de Reynoso to Crown 12.4.1581. The same pattern was to be found in other mining areas of Tegucigalpa: Agalteca 100-200 claims, only one mine being worked; San Marcos 100-200 claims, 4 being worked; Nuestra Señora de la 0 20 claims, none being worked.

37 AGI AG 164 Bishop of Honduras to Crown 12.5.1582; Newson, op. cit., pp. 217–228.

38 AGI AG 386-2 Crown to Audiencia 27.4.1575. For an account of petitions made by local royal official and miners to allow the employment of Indians in mining see Sherman, op. cit., pp. 232–3.

39 RAHM 9/4663 no. 15 Relación Geográfica of Valverde 24.8.1590.

40 AGI AG 402-3 Crown to Audiencia 6.12.1585; Sherman, op. cit., p. 234.

41 AGI AG 402-3 Crown to Audiencia 4.3.1600; Sherman, op. cit., p. 234.

42 AGI AG 10 Valverde to Crown 24.3.1581, AG 12 Criado de Castilla to Crown 15.5.1607; de García Peláez, F. P., Memorias para la Historia del Antiguo Reino de Guatemala. 3 vols. (Guatemala, 1943–4) II p. 26.Google Scholar

43 RAHM 9/4663 Relación Geográfica of Valverde 24.8.1590.

44 AGI PAT 183-1-16 Antonelli and López de Quintanillas to Crown 7.10.1590.

45 AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1648.

46 Zavala, S., Contribución a la Historia de las Instituciones Coloniales en Guatemala (Guatemala, 1967) p. 98.Google Scholar

47 AGCA A1.23. 1514 ff. 33-4 Crown to Audiencia 24.11.1602; AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1548.

48 AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1648.

49 AGCA A3.9. 173 1656 Instancia de los mineros de Opoteca 1.1.1734, A3.9. 156 3022 7.4.1736, A3.9 186 1886 17.5.1752, A3.9 173 1662 25.6.1752.

50 AGCA A3.9 155 2996 14.6.1661, 25.8.1662.

51 AGCA A3.9 155 2996 25.8.1662.

52 Initially the legal distance over which Indians could be drawn to work under the repartimiento was 10 leagues (Recopilación de las Leyes de los Reynos de las Indias 3 vols. (Madrid, 1943) II lib.6 , tit.12 ley 3 p. 286 2.12.1563). By the middle of the seventeenth century it appears to have been increased to twenty leagues (AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1648) and in 1656 the legal limit was extended by four leagues (AGI AG 19 Conde de Santiago 12.7.1656).

53 AGI AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1648.

54 See Figure 1.

55 AGCA A3.9 174 1685 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 31.5.1777.

56 For example, Langue was exempted from the repartimiento since it was located 60 leagues from the mines (AGCA A3.9 174 1681 13.4.1774).

57 The payment for time spent travelling was increased to 11/2 reales a day in the late eighteenth century. AGCA A3.9 155 2996 25.8.1662, A3.9 173 1656 Instancia de los mineros de Opoteca 1.1.1734, A1.30 222 2479 Visita of Comayagua 1742, A3.9 174 1671 Miners of Yuscarán 13.2.1766, A3.12 186 1893 Mining Ordinances 12.7.1795.

58 AGCA A3.9 173 1656 Instancia de los mineros de Opoteca 1.1.1734, A3.12 186 1895 Alcalde and pueblo of Chinada 28.6.1779.

59 AGCA A3.16 190 1940 Autos seguidos por los indios de San Antonio Texíguat 1714.

60 AGCA A3.12 186 1887 1772, A3.12 186 1895 Alcalde and pueblo of Chinacla 28.6.1779.

61 AGCA A1.30 227 2508 Charges against the Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 19.5.1748, Boletín del Archivo General del Gobierno (hereafter BAGG) 11 vols. (Guatemala, 1935–46) II pp. 466–9 Autos formados.… 13.10.1765, AGCA A3.9 176 1701 Junta de mineros 3.4.1793; García Peláez, op. cit.. I p.226.

62 ANH Paquete 9 Legajo 22 1774 and Legajo 53 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa and Choluteca 24.9.1774.

63 AGCA A3.12 186 1893 29.12.1758, A3.12 186 1887 14.12.1771, 12.3.1772.

64 AGCA A3.16 174 1682 10.4.1775.

65 AGI AG 968B Royal officials of Guatemala to Crown 13.10.1646, AG 18 Testimonio del estado que tienen las minas, Bernal del Cano 5.9.1648.

66 AGI AG 18 Esquivel y La Raya to Crown 20.1.1652; AGCA A1.23 1518 f.115 Crown to Audiencia 12.5.1654.

67 AGCA A3.9 155 2996 14.6.1661, 25.8.1662.

68 For comments on the activities of gurruguces see ANH Paquete 3 Legajo 144 Miners of Tegucigalpa 16.4.1681; AGCA A1.1 1 4 21.5.1708; West, op. cit., p. 774.

69 ANH Paquete 7 Legajos 40, 46 and 47 1746–7, Vallejo, A. R., Compendio de la Historia Social y Política de Honduras (Tegucigalpa, 1926) p. 31 Google Scholar; Batres Jáuregui, op. cit.. p. 412.

70 AGCA A3.12 186 1893 29.12.1758; AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790.

71 AGCA A3.9 506 5255 12.3.1766, A1.73 390 3662 Partial visita of Comayagua 1771; AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790; AGCA A3.9 176 1706 Morejón to Audiencia 10.2.1799.

72 AGI AG 231 President of Audiencia to Crown 29.5.1737; AGCA A3.9 507 5264 Comandante of Omoa 19.2.1786; AGI AG 501 Informe de la provincia de Honduras 20.2.1816.

73 Between 1785 and 1799 the following marks of silver were produced:

1785 14,040; 1786 15,255; 1787 14,175; 1788 13,230; 1789 14,850; 1790 16,470; 1791 16,200; 1793 13,365; 1794 14,040; 1795 15,210; 1796 12,015; 1797 16,065; 1798 12,285; 1799 12,690.

The figures for the number of bars produced have been multiplied by 135 to give production in marks. Each mark was worth 7 pesos. ANH Unclassified 1785 to 1799.

For contraband trade see: Colección de Documentos Referentes a la Historia Colonial de Nicaragua (Managua, 1921) pp. 96–136 Descripción del Reino de Guatemala, Luis Díaz Navarro 30.11.1758; AGI AG 457 Intendant to Crown 1.7.1798, AGI AG 501 Informe de la provincia de Honduras 20.2.1816, 1817; Floyd, , The Anglo-Spanish Struggle for Mosquitia (Albuquerque, 1967) pp. 60–1.Google Scholar

74 AGCA A3.9 175 1693 21.8.1787, A3.17 1718 27678 Incremento de los minerales… 14.10.1787.

75 AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790; AGCA A3.9 176 1707 2.5.1797.

76 AGCA A3.9 156 3022 7.4.1736.

77 AGCA A3.9 173 1656 Instancia de los mineros de Opoteca 1.1.1734.

78 AGCA A3.9 173 1662 and A3.12 186 1886 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 17.5.1752.

79 AGCA A3.12 173 1662 Audiencia 25.6.1752, A3.12 186 1886 Fiscal of Audiencia 13.11.1752.

80 AGCA A3.9 159 5592 27.2.1762.

81 AGCA A1.17 1840 13999 3.1.1766.

82 AGCA A3.9 174 1685 1777.

83 AGI AG 770 29.11.1785.

84 AGI AG 797 20.11.1788; AGCA A3.17 1718 27685 27.7.1789; AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790.

85 ANH Paquete 26 Legajo 29 Diligencias practicadas para reducir a poblado varias familias de los indios en el partido de Choluteca 10.10.1774.

86 AGCA A3.9 173 1656 Instancia de los mineros de Opoteca 1.1.1734, A3.12 186 1893 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 29.12.1758, A3.9 174 1678 Vega Lacayo to Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 1773, A3.9 176 1706 Morejón to Audiencia 20.6.1799; ANH Paquete 20 Legajo 25 1802; AGI AG 501 Anguiano to Crown 10.5.1804; ANH Paquete 13 Legajo 12 4.4.1810.

87 ANH Paquete 7 Legajo 23 1744, ANH Unclassified 23.1.1750; AGCA A3.9 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 25.5.1755; AGI AG 971 4.6.1814.

88 AGCA A3.9 174 1677 26.2.1771.

89 AGCA A3.9 506 5255 12.3.1766, A3.9 174 1681 13.4.1774, A3.17 1718 27685 27.7.1789.

90 AGCA A3.9 174 1674 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 25.5.1755.

91 AGCA A3.9 174 1674 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 29.4.1768.

92 AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790.

93 For an example of proceedings taken against gurruguces see ANH Paquete 8 Legajo 34 1769.

94 AGI AG 231 President of Audiencia 29.5.1737; BAGG I pp. 29-30 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ortiz Letona 20.7.1743; AGCA A3.9 186 1893 Alcalde Mayor of Tegucigalpa 29.12.1758, A3.9 159 5592 27.2.1762, A3.9 174 1674 Resident in the mines of Tegucigalpa 1772; ANH Paquete 12 Legajo 66 1802. For the activities of gurruguces see AGCA A3.9 174 1682a Garcon to Audiencia 10.4.1775, A3.9 507 5263 8.6.1783; AGI AG 797 García to Crown 20.11.1790.