Mills in Charcas, Cordoba and Buenos Aires (1550-1600)
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Date
2022
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Abstract
This paper examines the expansion of flour mills in the Audiencia de Charcas during the second half of the 16th century. The largest hydro-milling center in the Americas emerged in Alto Peru (present-day Bolivia), around Chuquisaca and Cochabamba, where about a hundred mills operated. The technology spread southward, particularly to Cordoba. The mills had a social impact, consolidating a stately society with strongly defined hierarchies. Politically, their significance was in the status that the technology brought to cities, which then became the seat of audencias and universities.
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Keywords
Colonial economic history, Latin American agrarian history, traditional milling te-chnology