Edda O. Samudio A. divides Las haciendas del Colegio San Francisco Javier de la Compañía de Jesús en Mérida: 1628-1767 into an analytical introduction of 117 pages and 397 pages of transcribed, supporting documents. Both sections trace the 139-year history of Venezuela’s first Jesuit establishment, the Colegio de San Francisco Javier in Mérida, from a first donation of two estancias, eight thousand cacao trees, and eight slaves, to the eventual expulsion of the order in 1767. Opening chapters focus on the early origins and succeeding acquisitions of the Jesuits in Mérida; on the internal administrative functioning of Jesuit enterprises; on local economic organization of capital, labor, and technology; and on the order’s role within the region.
The portrait that emerges is a familiar one, in that Venezuelan Jesuits combined charitable bequests with selected purchases in an effective long-term plan which rationalized both urban and rural acquisitions. They combined rental properties in Mérida with diversified (cacao, sugar, cattle) and, whenever possible, contiguous holdings in the countryside. The goal was to maximize growth and income for their urban educational and ecclesiastical mission. Since the Jesuit holdings mirrored the local infrastructure, the best periods of the order (1645-1678, 1745-1759) paralleled those of the region. The author implies that after 1759 the Jesuits may well have liquidated their holdings at an unprecedented rate, not only in response to a local turndown, but also with some anticipation of their fate, given their knowledge of the persecution of their order abroad.
This analysis rests on an extensive archival base which reproduces relevant documents from local ecclesiastical, university, and civil archives in Mérida; includes viceregal documents from Bogotá; and provides imperial coverage from the Archivo General de Indias. Most notable is the author’s use of tables and charts to provide detailed and particularly usable data on Jesuit acquisitions over time, to organize inventories of the order’s property, and to present itemized price lists. This publication makes a major contribution to the history of the Jesuits in Venezuela, and contains invaluable documentation for comparative historiography.
