This study is part of a DESCO project initiated in 1984 to strengthen the peasant economy. The project is a happy combination of applied and pure social science. This book shows the substantial strides made by Peruvian historians, who have borrowed extensively from other social sciences, particularly anthropology and economics.
The book has several theses. It claims, without going into detail, that the submission of the Collaguas and the Cabanas to the Incas did not produce a transfer of surplus at a level comparable to what was observed since the conquest. The explanation is twofold: the Incas exacted less, on the one hand, and reinvested more, in local roads and irrigation, on the other.
Manrique claims that the instruments of exploitation have varied: encomiendas during the first decades; tributes; mitas for the mines; repartos in the decades before the Túpac Amaru rebellion. From independence on, with the formation of large haciendas, the social relations of production were not changed so as to end exploitation. Thus, Manrique emphasized continuity in the submission and exploitation of Indians. Each economic period, characterized by a productive cycle, had its instruments and its rate of exploitation of Indian labor, but there was always exploitation.
This book deals with a specific region, but in a broad way. It falls in the category of macrohistorical interpretations. Unlike so many macro interpretations, Manrique goes out of his way to document each of his major theses. In a book covering four centuries, the strategy of proof is different from what is fitting to a narrower, more specific study. Accordingly, Manrique skillfully uses data from a variety of sources, both primary and secondary, which lend credence to his theses. The result is a very stimulating book.
