“Useful vagabonds”– A new Indian fiscal category in Quito in the 17th Century

Abstract

Based on the division of Spanish America into two republics – Spanish and Indian – which, in principle, corresponded to the urban and rural spaces, a theoretically static and rigid society was configured. This division implied that, as natives of a specific space, Indians didn’t have freedom of movement. If they moved, they would become outsiders, or even vagabonds, with no links to any community, without serving in the mita or paying tribute. This mobility, which occurred in places like Quito in the Prehispanic period, therefore posed a veritable problem for the Spanish Administration with regard to the control of the population, manual labor and, especially, fiscality. This article analyses the creation of a new Indian fiscal category for this mobility, as the Audiencia of Quito’s response to this problem; a response specifically based on the vagabonds that proliferated in the capital of the Audiencia in the 16^th century. The study demonstrates the extent of this new fiscal category, its denomination, how it was conceived on the basis of preexisting elements in the indigenous tributary system and, finally, how said category was subject to the same difficulties and problems that affected the tribute of the native Indians.