An "encomienda" in Peru was a reward offered to each of the men under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro who began the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532. In the early colonial period of the New World, land had little economic value without labor to exploit it. The grant of an "encomienda" bestowed an "encomendero", the right to collect tribute from a community of indigenous people. The word "encomienda" means "trust", indicating that the indigenous people were entrusted to the care and attention of an "encomendero". In reality, the "encomienda" system is often compared to slavery. Theoretically, the "encomendero" grantee did not own the people or the land occupied by his subjects, but only the right to tribute, usually in the form of labor, that he could extract from them.
Grants of "encomiendas" were later extended to both soldiers and non-soldiers who provided valuable services to the conquest and settlement of Peru. The governor of Peru, initially Pizarro and later the viceroy, granted "encomiendas" to individuals. The grant of an "encomienda" to an individual was intended to be inheritable only to a second generation. The "encomendero" was responsible for paying a tax to the King of Spain; to protect and provide religious education to the indigenous people, henceforth called "Andeans," under his control; to provide military services as needed; and to maintain a residence near the area in which his subjects lived.
"Encomiendas" varied in size and wealth, with the Pizarros and other military leaders receiving much larger and richer grants than the rank and file among their soldiers. However, even the most humble members of the conquering army acquired wealth and social status far beyond what they could have hoped for in Spain or in other Spanish colonies. Part of the wealth came immediately from the soldiers' share of the treasure captured from the Incas and part came more slowly from the labor of the people living in the "encomiendas" that those soldiers controlled. Most of the wealth derived from "encomiendas" was from agriculture or mining, although manufacturing, especially of textiles, was a source of income of some "encomiendas".
The "encomienda" "was the key institution of early Spanish colonialism" and the principal means of exploiting the labor of the Andeans by the Spanish conquerors. The grant of an encomienda enabled the recipient to enjoy a "lordly rank and life-style" and "encomenderos", often of humble origins, dominated local governments and were economically important. The number of "encomiendas" in Peru peaked around 1570. In most of Latin America, the "encomienda" system gave way to "repartimiento" in the late 16th century; in Peru, "encomiendas" persisted until the 18th century. In 1721, the creation of new "encomiendas" was prohibited by the Spanish Crown. The "encomiendas" were gradually replaced by large, landed estates called "haciendas" in which, unlike the "encomienda", the "hacendado" or patron was the legal owner of the land.
Spoils of war.
During the centuries-long reconquest of Spain, Spanish Christian leaders awarded "encomiendas" to individuals for their military services in gaining control of territory and people ruled by the Muslims. The institution was carried to the New World. In Peru, the first "encomenderos" were 40 aged and injured Spanish soldiers who Pizzaro left as a rear guard in the town of Piura as he led his main force inland to confront the Inca Empire in 1532. Each of Pizarro's force of 168 men who participated in the Battle of Cajamarca was entitled to an encomienda. Most of them were from the humbler social classes of Spain. Shortly after Cajamarca, Pizarro was joined by Diego de Almagro with 200 additional men and the Spaniards continued the conquest by capturing Cuzco and establishing a Spanish city there in 1534. Almagro and his men were the last Spaniards in Peru who were automatically entitled to an "encomienda", although many soldiers who arrived later were also recipients. The military leaders awarded themselves the most valuable of the "encomiendas". The governor of Peru (initially Pizzaro himself) and the captains of the conquering armies had the authority to grant "encomiendas", although the "encomendero" was required to pay taxes to the Crown of Spain.
In the late 1530s and 1540s, when Peru was impacted by civil war, "encomiendas" were given to (or taken away from) captains and cavalrymen but not usually common soldiers. By 1560, those given or retaining "encomiendas" were soldiers from the days of the conquest, elites of Spanish society, military leaders of distinction during the civil wars, and people with good connections. A few of the people granted "encomiendas" chose to return to Spain and gave up or illegally sold their "encomienda". Others who remained in Peru maneuvered to retain the "encomienda" for their descendants.
In 1570, the number of "encomiendas" in Peru (which included Ecuador, Bolivia, and northern Chile at that time) peaked at about 470 and the "encomenderos" reached the apogee of their economic and political importance. In 1550 the average number of "tributaries" (native males between 15 and 50 years of age) assigned to each "encomienda" was 673. Counting family members, the number of Andean people subject to an "encomendero" totaled more than one million. By 1630, the number of "encomiendas" had declined to slightly more than 300, of which about 70 were within 21st-century Ecuador and 30 in Bolivia. Part of the reason for the decline was the simultaneous decline in the Andean population, mostly due to epidemics of diseases introduced by European colonists, but also the exploitation of the native peoples. Scholars estimate the indigenous population of Peru (not including modern-day Ecuador and Bolivia in this estimate) at 600,000 in 1620 compared to a population of approximately nine million in pre-Columbian Peru. The number of Europeans, mostly Spanish, living in Peru in 1630 was about 34,000.
The persistence of "encomiendas" in Peru, long after the system had been replaced in most of Latin America, was due to the cultural similarity between the Spanish encomienda and the Inca system of tribute labor, the "mit'a". The Spanish inherited and adapted the "mit'a" system. Although the Incan "mit'a" does not appear to have been as exploitative as the Spanish "encomienda", both were systems of corvée or forced labor in which the Andeans worked for the benefit of an overlord.
"Encomenderos".
The ideal life of an "encomendero" was a "casa poblada" (populated house), a Spanish concept which "implied a large house, a Spanish wife if possible, a table where many guests were maintained, African slaves, a staff of Spanish and Indian [Indigenous people] servant-employees" plus "a stable of horses, fine clothing, ownership of agricultural land and herds of livestock, and holding office on the municipal councils." The "encomenderos" derived most of their income from agriculture and mining, although they might also invest in commerce and real estate. By 1540, as the numbers of Spaniards in Peru increased, nearly all "encomenderos" hired one or more majordomos to manage their enterprises. Majordomos or stewards were usually of modest origin, but had to be literate and they were usually paid a percentage of the profits of the "encomienda", most commonly about 20 percent. The majordomos were usually more instrumental in managing the "encomienda" than the "encomendero" himself. The "encomendero" often lived far from his "encomienda" in a city, most commonly Lima, Cusco, or Quito (a few lived in Spain), and only visited his "encomienda" occasionally. Also hired by most "encomenderos" were "estancieros": Spaniards, Portuguese, or Canary Islanders of modest heritage and low prestige who lived among the Andeans and were usually herders and farmers. Mining was often a lucrative business for "encomenderos" and they hired skilled professionals to manage gold and silver mines. Their managers received a share of up to 20 percent of the profits of mines and smelters.
Women ("encomenderas").
Spanish men far outnumbered Spanish women in 16th century Peru. If an "encomendero" wished to pass on his "encomienda" to his heir, he must have a legal wife and an heir born in wedlock, so almost all "encomenderos" married Spanish women—or at least women with a claim to be Spanish. The wives of "encomenderos" in the 16th century occupied the highest rung of female society in Peru and between 1534 and 1620 at least 102 widows and daughters of "encomenderos" became "encomenderas", the possessor, usually temporary pending marriage or re-marriage, of an "encomienda". By custom, widows were required to marry soon after the death of a husband and, given the high mortality of men in the turbulent Peru in the early decades of its colonial existence, many women were married three or four times and effectively managed the "encomiendas" of their dead husbands. The "encomenderas" of those days have been described as mostly of plebeian birth with only a few aristocrats among them, but even "encomenderas" of modest heritage possessed far greater luxuries than women of similar heritage had in Spain. In exceptional circumstances, a woman might be granted an "encomienda" on her own merit. In the 1540s, Maria Escobar, twice-widowed and heir to two "encomiendas", was awarded one of her own when she grew wheat and introduced wheaten bread to Lima, which until then had depended upon maize for bread. Another twice-widowed "encomendera", Jordana Mejía, who died in 1624, acquired so much wealth that the will allocating her assets ran to more than 250 pages.
Andeans ("Indios").
"Encomenderos" had little contact with the Andean people whose labor they controlled other than their house servants. Instead, indigenous leaders, called "caciques" ("kurakas" in Quechua) by the Spanish, were the intermediaries between the "encomendero" and his subjects. Lineages of the "caciques" often predated the Spanish, and even the Incas. They were the "preexisting, functioning machinery of local government." The "encomendero" might attempt to extract more income from his "encomienda" "but he had no interest in dismantling" the system he inherited from the Incas. It was the "caciques" who controlled the Andean people of the "encomienda" and delivered tribute and labor to the "encomendero". The "caciques" were widely accused of being corrupt and cruel to the people under their control, but they were essential to the "encomenderos". "Caciques" even occupied a high position in the complicated status pyramid of the Spaniards, entitled to be called "don" as some "encomenderos", and many of their wives, were not "dons" or "doñas". "Caciques" had a very substantial income.
The Andean people subject to the direct rule of the "caciques" and the indirect rule of the "encomenderos" were a declining and demoralized group. They were beset by recurring epidemics of European diseases that drastically reduced their population. They were subjected to exorbitant demands for tribute and labor by the Spanish. They were killed or died in large numbers in the civil wars and indigenous revolts that broke out during the first 40 years after the initial conquest. The Spanish "demand[ed] gold and silver from those who have no mines... pigs from those who do not raise them... [and] maize, wheat and "aji" [peppers] from those who do not raise them." Moreover, the Andean subjects had to deliver the tribute demanded by the "encomendero" to his home which could be up to distant from their homes. Transporting their tribute, mostly agricultural products, on their backs or in llama caravans might take months every year. In return, the "encomenderos" provided priests for the instruction of the Andeans "in the tenets of our Holy Catholic Faith."
Most of the Andean people of the "encomiendas" worked near their homes but many were drafted for work at distant locations in mines and textile manufacture. Beginning in the 1570s, the male labor force south of Cuzco, including that of the "encomiendas", was required to travel and work in the silver mines in Potosí. One-seventh of the labor force, about 13,500 men, worked alternating six-month shifts in Potosí. Additional levies of Andean labor were made for notoriously-unhealthy work in the mercury mine at Huancavelica and in manufacturing textiles in northern Peru. The small wages they earned for difficult and dangerous work helped them pay the annual cash tribute they owed to the "encomenderos".
Slavery and the "encomienda".
The Andeans working Peruvian "encomiendas" are sometimes characterized as slaves, but the "encomenderos" were given rights only to the labor of the natives, not their land. The Andean could not be sold or relocated by the "encomendero". Nor did the "encomendero" own his "encomienda" in perpetuity. Inheritance was limited to only one generation after the grant of the "encomienda" to an individual. However, proponents of "encomiendas" made