Trading Roles: Gender, Ethnicity, and the Urban Economy in Colonial Potosí(Latin America Otherwise)

Once part of Peru, now part of Bolivia, Potosi was arguably the most important urban center in the Western Hemisphere during the colonial period. It was internationally famous for its abundant silver mines and regionally infamous for its coercion of labor to work the mines. Trading Roles shifts attention away from the opulence and oppression associated with the silver trade to daily life in the city's streets, markets, and taverns. As Jane E. Mangan shows, within two decades of Potosi's founding in the 1540s, the majority of the city's inhabitants no longer produced food or alcohol for themselves; they purchased these items. Trade in food and drink emerged as the most common site of interaction for Potosinos of different ethnic and class backgrounds. In Trading Roles, Mangan presents a vibrant social history of colonial Potosi through an investigation of everyday commerce during the city's economic heyday, between the discovery of silver in 1545 and the waning of production in the late seventeenth century. Drawing on wills and dowry records, judicial cases, town council records, and royal decrees, Mangan brings the bustle of daily trade in Potosi alive. She examines quotidian economic transactions in light of social custom, ethnicity, and gender, illuminating negotiations over vendor location, kinship ties that sustained urban trade through the course of silver booms and busts, and credit practices that developed to mitigate the pressures of the market economy. She demonstrates that women and indigenous people played essential roles in colonial Potosi's economy and that identities and relationships within the multiethnic society were negotiated in the daily commercial transactions she describes so vividly.

Table of Contents:
About the series vii Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1. “The Largest Population and the Most Commerce”: The Genesis of Potosi’s Urban Economy 21 2. Making Room to Sell: Location, Regulation, and the Properties of Urban Trade 48 3. Light on the Chicha, Heavy on the Bread: The Colonial Market for Brewing and Baking 76 4. The World of Credit in the City of Silver 106 5. Enterprising Women: Female Traders in the Urban Economy 134 6. ?Vale un Potosi? The Urban Marketplace in the Face of Decline, 1650–1700 161 Conclusion 178 Appendix 191 Notes 197 Glosary 251 Bibliography 255 Index 267

About the Author :
Jane E. Mangan is Assistant Professor of History at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. She is the editor of Natural and Moral History of the Indies, by JosÉ de Acosta (also published by Duke University Press).

Review :
"Trading Roles is a pioneering study. The mass of research Jane E. Mangan has put into the work is truly amazing. She makes the lives of the vast majority of the population of Potosi come alive."--Erick D. Langer, author of Economic Change and Rural Resistance in Southern Bolivia, 1880-1930 "Trading Roles is an unusually lively, detailed account of 'the underdogs' of a colonial Spanish American city. It draws attention not only to relatively invisible historical actors but to the rich texture of the deals and socially patterned expectations that brought them together."--Kathryn Burns, author of Colonial Habits: Convents and the Spiritual Economy of Cuzco, Peru "This intriguing work will be of interest to advanced students and specialists in Latin American trade and commerce, banking and credit, urbanization, and gender and ethnic studies. Recommended."--V.H. Cummins, Choice "A superb work of social and economic history and a major contribution to the field of colonial Latin America... Wonderful."--Jeremy Baskes, Business History Review "Mangan's book ... demonstrates postmodern sensibility without any postmodern silliness... It leaves the reader with a memorable view of the indigenous people of Potosi wrestling their lives from the opportunities they found."--Camilla Townsend, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History "In the historiography on colonial Potosi, Mangan's work is distinctive for its concentration on the grassroots of daily market activities and mundane business dealings... The great strength of Mangan's book is that she brings to life the world of the common vendors, artisans, merchants, and suppliers that made a great colonial city work."--Timothy E. Anna, Colonial Latin American Historical Review "This is a highly readable, well-argued study appropriate for courses on the urban economy as well as gender history... It does offer an inclusive and fresh approach to understanding how women and men of all ethnic groups came to create a colonial world in Potosi."--Karen B. Graubart, Hispanic American Historical Review "Mangan's look at non-elite participation in Potosi's economy is a contribution to our understanding of adaptation and negotiation in the face of an expanding colonial economic system." --Cynthia E. Milton, Canadian Journal of Latin American and the Caribbean "Mangan's writing is skilful with keen turns of phrases as she evokes the sights and the smells of the Andean market. Firmly ethno-historical, Mangan's book is accessible to undergraduate and graduate students alike, who can experience the complexity of southern Andean colonial society without the overwhelming barrage of specific terms, names, and cultural concepts."--Rachel Sarah O'Toole, Itinerario "Mangan makes a unique contribution by telling the local tale... Mangan did the work and brings excitement to the narrative. The data is supported by attractive and effective maps, prints, and appendices. The writing is scholarly, agile, and even fun as Mangan follows the lives of Spanish, Criollo, Indigenous and African men and women in their economic pursuits."--James J. Harrington, Canadian Journal of History "A fascinating and detailed case study based on important and original research... Trading Roles makes a significant and thoughtful contribution to our understanding of specific networks of exchange, credit, and interaction in colonial Peru."--Caroline Dodds, Sixteenth Century Journal