The Structure of the Hacendado Class in Late Eighteenth-Century Alto Perú: The Intendencia de La Paz

Abstract

Tmn aim of this article is to provide a preliminary estimation of the size, distribution, relative wealth, and composition of the Spanish landed elite, or hacendados, in a representative region of the Andean world. I have selected for this survey the late eighteenth-century province (or intendencia) of La Paz. By the last two decades of the eighteenth century, the province was organized into seven districts: six core Andean areas and a newly created seventh frontier zone of recently missionized lowland Indians.' Within the six Andean districts of Larecaja, Omasuyos, Sicasica, Pacajes, and Chulumani and the three rural parishes of the city of La Paz, there were over 200,000 Indians. The province was thus the single most important center of rural Amerindian life in the Andes, containing the largest number of Indian peasants in any province of Upper or Lower Peru at this time.2 Some of its Indians were also among the wealthiest in both Perus and thus produced the largest amount of tribute of any Peruvian province. It