The Economic Transformation of the Inca Heartland (Cuzco, Peru) in the Late Sixteenth Century

Abstract

This paper uses documents generated by the 1594–1595composiciones de tierrasin Cuzco, Peru, to discuss the economic transformation of the former heartland of the Inca Empire and the impact of Spanish administrative policies implemented in the early 1570s. The diverse social and environmental landscapes of rural areas lying to the west of Cuzco provide a range of local case studies that reveal how settlement and tribute policies of the viceroy Francisco de Toledo failed to produce sustainable colonial towns of Christian Indians. Detailed records of indigenous land repartition in the area show gender- and status-based patterns of individual allocations, as well as ecological differences in landholding between communities. The local records indicate the continuing importance of Inca-era community identities and local leadership for maintaining possession of community lands. By contrast, documents related to thecomposicionesamong private landowners reveal vast inequalities in land access, as well as the rapid growth in the demand for indigenous labor to produce important agrarian commodities. We argue that Spanish administrative policies accelerated the transformation of the means of production in rural Cuzco, creating peasants instead of Christian Indian subjects.

Prosperity and prestige: Archaeological realities of unfree laborers under Inka imperialism

“…It was reduced into the town of San Francisco de Maras in 1571 and at least 21 members of Ayllu Checoc were among the yanakuna inherited by Wayna Qhapaq's greatgranddaughter Beatriz Clara Coya as part of his royal estate; it was later subsumed into the Marquisate of Oropesa (Covey and Amado, 2008;Villanueva, 1970). Ayllu names in the Maras region and surrounding areas tend to be linked to toponyms, as found in surveys of late 16thcentury land tenure (Covey and Quave, 2017); it is reasonable to link the inheritance of the Checoc ayllu to the archaeological site of Cheqoq which is located on Cheqoq hill in a landscape of relatively stable toponyms. Additionally, in the 1595 repartition of lands to the ayllus of San Francisco de Maras, the border markers for Ayllu Checoc include storehouses made of quincha, which is the type of archaeological storehouse present at the Cheqoq site (ARC Urubamba 1594-1595. f.11v-12v).…”