Description
Book SynopsisA social history of trade in a colonial city in Peru, arguing that markets, stores, and taverns were important sites of cultural creation and showing how the gender and ethnic identities of participants affected how they adapted to the market economy.
Trade 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 Potosí 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“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 *
“[Mangan’s] narrative style and scholarship clearly will set a high standard for years to come.” -- Michael D. Gambone * American Historical Review *
“In the historiography on colonial Potosí, 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 *
“Mangan is always in firm control of her abundant data, no small achievement in this kind of research. This is the best study we have of the lower to middling urban castes and classes. . . . Mangan significantly advances the field of Andean history.” -- David Cahill * Ethnohistory *
“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 Potosí.” -- Karen B. Graubart * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsAbout 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
