Cochineal and Tlaxalans

As both Carol and Joseph have noted the editors and writers of From Silver to Cocaine appear to possess a much firmer grasp of understanding upon economic trends and ideas than their contemporaries writing for The Social Life of Things.  This is evident throughout Carlos Marichal’s second essay, “Mexican Cochineal and the European Demand for American Dyes, 1550-1850.”  Perhaps I’m still a bit primed from last week’s reading of A Perfect Red, but I felt that this essay reinforced the ideas discussed in that book while also expanding upon the themes with a bent toward the economic side of things. 

As we have discussed in class, cochineal is one of the few commodities coming out of Spanish controlled America that benefits the indigenous people almost as much as the Europeans themselves. As Marichal notes “[t]he high prices of cochineal… allowed Indian families to obtain modest but welcome income from the dyestuffs.” (p85)  This is in stark comparison to the often deadly work involved in the production of sugar or the extraction of silver.  Not only did this allow the Tlaxalans to remain living among their own families but it the increased demand for their specialized product but lead to “incentives provided by both merchants and the viceregal administration” to keep production levels as high as possible and to provide as much of the lucrative commodity to eager markets back in Europe. (p85)  In essence, the trade of cochineal helped the indigenous people to maintain a monopoly of what became “the most demanded and expensive luxury dyestuff in the Western world.” (p81)  This monopoly in turn resulted in a regular flow of income into the Tlaxalan villages affording them a level of luxury and semi-autonomy not heard of compared to the rest of the subjects of Spanish colonial rule.